104 Stampede

SOLD
Winning Bid Undisclosed
This item SOLD at 2016 Apr 02 @ 11:10UTC-7 : PDT/MST
Category Art
Auction Currency USD
Start Price 10,000.00 USD
Estimated at 20,000.00 - 30,000.00 USD
Stampede
Artist: Wieghorst, OlafDate of Birth: 1899-1988
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 30 x 40 inches
Signed: Signed lower left
Verso:

A child acrobat in his native Denmark, Olaf Wieghorst made a smooth transition to successful rodeo rider after his family moved to the United States. He was also a U. S. Cavalryman on the rugged Mexican border and a mounted police officer in New York City. To say that he knew his way around horses is quite an understatement. After moving to California in 1944, Wieghorst translated an interest in art into a career depicting Western life in the saddle, taking special pride in his ability to convey the anatomy of the horse within a well-constructed scene; he was always on the lookout for the “little natural things” to add to his popular canvases. Among his many friends and the many avid collectors of his work were Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater and President Ronald Reagan. In Stampede, Wieghorst demonstrates that he not only knows horses, but respects their power, their essential wildness, and the potential threat they pose to man when they are spooked. The falling rider in the painting, even though he hasn’t hit the dust, is scrambling to stay out from under his tumbling, rolling mount. The rider at left has pulled up, helpless to do anything but watch. The horses themselves are sleek and muscular, an elemental force beyond our control in their headlong, breakneck rush.