The Cowboy in American Prints — 1985

Edited by John Meigs

The cowboy—that lonely, quiet, hard-working, hard-playing, essentially honest, always masculine, rugged individual—has become the preeminent American myth. The graphics represented in this book are in large part responsible for the popularization and sometimes even the creation of the cowboy myth. Whether it be 19th century woodcuts found in popular magazines of the day or contemporary cowboy illustrations, most Americans, and indeed most people, have come to expect a special kind of image when they hear the word cowboy.

The works collected here range from the 1850s to present-day work by living American artists. There are more than 100 woodcuts, engravings, lithographs, pen drawings reproduced in black and white and the artists include Charles Russell, W. A. Rogers, Frederic Remington, Theodore Van Soelen, Paul Frenzeny, William M. Cary, Jules Tavernier, Peter Hurd, Justin Wells, Gordon Snidow, Henry Ziegler, Thomas Hart Benton, Lawrence Barrett, Georges Schreiber, and many others. The uniqueness of this book is that it contains the largest representation of living artists whose subject is the American cowboy.

John Meigs, an artist himself, is a lecturer on American art, a collector of American graphics, and a consultant on acquisition for several museums. He has edited Peter Hurd, The Lithographs and Peter Hurd Sketch Book. Mr. Meigs lives in San Patricio, New Mexico.