Provenance: Private collection, Texas Like many other artists of his day, Frank McCarthy cut his teeth in the world of illustration, first with magazines and later with book covers and movie posters. After he moved West in 1974, all of his attention turned to Western art. By then, McCarthy had already established his trademark style, which included action and realism. “Realism is perhaps the only stylistic term which can be applied to McCarthy’s painting,” wrote James Ballinger in The Art of Frank McCarthy. “Following a tradition established by landscape artists of the mid-19th century, his attention to each detail in the landscape and main subject is carefully delineated. The clarity of space and sharpness of light sets McCarthy’s work apart from any other painter of his day. Whether the subject of a painting is a stampede occurring out front of a thunderstorm, or a buffalo hunt taking place on a clear summer day on the high plains, the event seems to exist in a vacuum. This technique allows no interference between the subject and viewer, providing the painter the opportunity to report the details of the stampede or hunt with tremendous immediacy.”