W. Herbert Dunton

1878-1936

Though a native of Augusta, Maine, Herbert Dunton, who called himself Buck, was a true Western outdoorsman at heart. His early passion for drawing was encouraged by his parents, who provided him with neatly-bound sketchbooks in which to record the animals and scenery of his wilderness adventures. Though a self-taught artist, Dunton quickly became recognized for his many drawings and was one of the nation's top-ranking illustrators by his early twenties.

For the next fifteen years, Dunton maintained a frantic schedule of summers on the Western range living as a real cowboy and winters in New York applying himself to his numerous commissions. Dunton worked from firsthand experience and became an expert in Western outdoor life, illustrating nearly 50 books and hundreds of articles relating to the subject.

A chance meeting in 1911 at the Salmagundi Club in New York with fellow member Ernest Blumenschein led to Dunton's move to Taos the following year. Having made a sizable fortune in commercial art, Dunton chose to pursue his painting career exclusively. He became the second artist, after Bert Phillips, to establish a full-time residence in Taos. He was also one of the six founding members of the Taos Society of Artists.

Dunton, unlike the other artists of the group, continued to favor animals and the life of the cowboy as themes for his paintings. Though he painted Indian subjects, the vanishing West of the mountain man and cowboy was the subject of his artistic vision. As his compositions and style developed, his natural abilities became more evident. His unique style of painting in bold, patterned brushstrokes of rich color is as distinctive as his Western themes and reflects the character of this Taos master.

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