Edward Borein (American, 1872-1945) Western Etching Print

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By Myers Antiques

Apr 30, 2023

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• Lot Description
  Edward Borein (American, 1872-1945) Print. Title - Parting a Cow and Calf. Original western art etching. Signed lower right Edward Borein. Frederick Keppel & Co., Inc. label on the reverse,inscribed with title, artist's name and proof printed by the artist. Not laid down, tape hinged at the top. Sheet size measures 6.1 inches high, 10.7 inches wide, image measures 4 inches high, 10 inches wide. Frame measures 10.75 inches high, 16 inches wide. In good condition, lightly toned.
  
  From Askart.com: Biography from Marlene Miller. What sets Edward Borein (1872-1945) apart from other Western artists is the fact that he never took an artist's license to enhance or over-dramatize his pictures. Borein recorded what he saw. Important to him was recording accurately every detail of the horses, cattle, and gear. In his own words, I will leave only an accurate history of the West, nothing else but that. If anything isn't authentic or just right, I won't put it in any of my work. Edward Borein rarely used a model. This traces back to the years in the saddle, when it would have been impossible to stop and sketch the things he had seen. He developed a phenomenal memory, and no detail was too minute or unimportant for him. When he set out to make a sketch or even to complete a picture, it was drawn or painted entirely from memory. It is this freedom from the hampering effect of copying that is so apparent in the free style of his work. Harold McCracken, foremost expert in the field of Western American art, considered Edward Borein as one of the most important of those who portrayed the old-time cowboys and the traditional Indians of the American West. In his words: Like Charlie Russell in so many respects, Borein's ability as an artist was a natural one and by natural desire he developed the talent to a remarkable degree, while working as a cowboy…Borein became a master draftsman and he was highly skilled in the handling of watercolors. Some of his classic ink drawings are equal to the best done by any Western artist. Many art historians rank Edward Borein right up there with Charlie Russell. Both were excellent artists, both painted from life's intimate experiences and observations, and both achieved some degree of success during their lifetimes. For Borein, the old West was rapidly changing. The open ranges of the early cattlemen were being enclosed with barbed wire. The vast herds of buffalo had largely disappeared. The Indian had lost access to his hunting grounds and had been forced to settle on reservations. Ed felt these changes and developed an insatiable desire to record the disappearing features and character of the early West. Ed was offended by all the romanticized stories that had been written, and by the inaccurate pictures that were being offered as representing the true Western scene. Edward Borein, who died in 1945, was one of the last painters to capture the old West from personal observation. John Edward Borein was born in San Leandro, California, on October 21, 1872, the son of a deputy sheriff. San Leandro in Alameda County was a cow town in those days and, as a child, Ed was fascinated by the daily passage of the cattle and the colorful vaqueros with all their special gear. At age five, he drew two black horses pulling an old-fashioned, quite heavily ornamented hearse. He showed it to his mother, and when she asked him why the plumes on the horses' heads were bent, he answered: because the wind is blowing. His mother knew they had an artist in the family. Ed started school, but his mind was not on his books and lessons. He spent most of the time daydreaming and sketching in his textbooks. By the time he was twelve, he had learned to ride, rope and drive cattle. And by the time he was twelve, he had also finished his first oil painting. After school, he tried out different trades, then apprenticed with a saddle maker for 6 months, and learned enough to braid rawhide, and to make his own saddles and bridles. Years later Charlie Russell would make model horses, and Ed would fit them with perfectly detailed miniature saddles. At the age of 18, Ed told his father he wanted to become a cowboy. Father wanted Ed to have a more sensible job, but Ed had made up his mind, and with the money he had saved from working, and a little help from mother, he bought a horse and bedroll, and headed south. He took a job at a ranch near San Jose, California, where he learned to properly handle his horse and herd cattle. But it was a pretty rough life, and after a year, he quit and went home. Back in Oakland, he showed his mother the many sketches he had done at the ranch. Even more convinced that Ed had talent, she enrolled him in the Art School of the San Francisco Art Association. But he felt stifled in such a formal environment, and only lasted a month. Over the next few years he worked on several ranches, one of them the 45,000 acre Rancho Jesus Maria, an old Spanish ranch situated on the present site of Vandenberg Air Force Base in Northern Santa Barbara County. He learned very quickly that without building on his prior experience as a cowpuncher, he would be no match for the wild longhorns. During this time, he not only improved his skills as a vaquero, but also improved greatly as an artist, even making his first sale. Two college boys, so the story goes, saw Ed's drawings on the bunkhouse walls, and suggested that he send them to Charles Lummis, Publisher of the Magazine The Land of Sunshine, which he did. No one was more surprised than Ed when he received a check for $15, more than he could make in two weeks as a cowboy. What attracted Lummis to Borein's work was its authenticity. After more than two years at Rancho Jesus Maria, Ed grew restless again, and headed south where he continued to gain experience in becoming both a seasoned vaquero, and Western artist. All along, Ed had been documenting the gradual transition from the Spanish to the American influence. A ranch owner recognized Ed's emerging artistic talent and helped finance his first trip to Mexico. Borein rode south to Baja California. It did not take him long to realize how different life in Mexico was, but he adapted quickly. He could speak some Spanish, and once again, he chose to work as a vaquero. Every day he would document the people, their customs and the bright colors of the landscape. One of Ed's most striking characteristics was his love and understanding of the primitive people. He helped drive cattle down the Mexican coast and made some of the finest sketches of the rurales and charros with their magnificent horses and gear. Between jobs, he would go into the countryside to sketch. He had no trouble finding work. He was skilled, well liked--and unique. A cowpuncher and an artist! He sketched from his saddle during the day, then in the evening, by the light of a kerosene lamp or a fire, he'd go over the pencil lines with India ink. It was also during this period that Ed started to experiment with watercolor. After two years in Mexico he headed north, working his way and sketching. He crossed the border in 1899. Traveling through New Mexico and Arizona, he made his first contact with the Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Pima and other Indian tribes. He arrived back in Oakland in June of 1900 and got a job as a staff artist with the San Francisco Call. It was during this time that he first became aware of Charlie Russell's work. He said: The reason Russell's pictures are so lifelike is because Russell lived the life he painted. I have done the same thing....and that's the only way you can learn to paint it. But the open spaces called again, and after a few months, he looked up his friend Maynard Dixon in San Francisco and, together, they took a pack trip into the Northwest. Ed returned to the Bay area just long enough to get ready for another trip to Mexico. Ed hired on as a vaquero at Hacienda Babicora in Chihuahua, the half million-acre ranch owned by Mrs. Phoebe Hearst, mother of William Randolph Hearst, and in November of the same year, (1903) the ranch organized a trail drive to move a herd of 3,800 cattle north to New Mexico. Ed kept a diary of the treacherous 200-mile drive, in which he talks about numerous stampedes, loss of cattle and horses and the bitter cold nights. Following the drive, Ed left for El Paso and worked and sketched his way north through Indian Country. He visited Laguna, Acoma, Taos, Oraibi and Walpi. These sketches were later used as a source for many of his etchings. Borein arrived back in Oakland in June of 1904. He rented a studio and started free-lancing for newspapers and magazines, using mostly his Mexican material. One of his best customers was Sunset Magazine. And it was through Sunset that Borein met Edwin Emerson, husband of the magazine's editor and noted author and journalist. This friendship proved to be of great value to Borein later as Emerson had a large circle of friends and knew his way around New York. For the next two years, Ed continued with his illustrations in India ink. He painted a few oils and dabbled in watercolors. His pictures of men, horses and cattle appeared in magazines and as cover designs. He had the ability to see and draw but he felt that he should learn more about the how and why of art. At the urging of his friends and critics, Ed decided to go to New York to learn new methods. In December of 1907, at the age of 35, Ed arrived in New York and roomed with his friend Edwin Emerson. An admirer of Borein's work, Emerson was later to write: For every horse this artist has drawn or painted, he has ridden a hundred; and for every long-horned steer depicted by him, he has punched, or roped or branded a thousand. When he draws the picture of a saddle, bridle or a lasso he knows, more intimately than any other artist could, just what he is drawing, for he himself, in his day, has made saddles and bridles and lassoes with his own hands. Emerson introduced Borein to important newspaper and magazine editors and soon after commissions started coming. Both Remington and Russell, whom Ed had admired at the same time, were at the top of their careers, and were already illustrating for major national publications. Shortly after, Ed met Charlie and Nancy Russell for the first time, and Charlie and Ed realized how much they had in common, and their lifelong friendship began. It was during this visit that Ed first saw Charlie's oils and decided he - Ed - had no business working in that medium. Ironically, Russell thought that Borein could have been the best in that medium. Ed set up his studio on 42nd Street and decorated it with his collection of Mexican and Indian artifacts and sketches and immediately went to work. He had his first major show, mostly of India inks and oils, and sold well. His studio was so reminiscent of the West that Charlie Russell spent much of his leisure time there. He became friends with Theodore Roosevelt, artists Childe Hassam, Carl Oscar Borg, James Swinnerton, Joe deYong, Frank Tenney Johnson, and entertainment personalities including Leo Carrillo, Will Rogers, Will James, Annie Oakley, and Buffalo Bill Cody. His illustrations were in great demand, and he was improving rapidly. His India ink drawings appeared in Harpers, Collier's Weekly, Sunset Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post and other publications. He did ads for Stetson Hats, Pierce Arrow and Aunt Jemima. Through Russell's connection, Ed was commissioned to do promotional posters for the Calgary Stampeders. Ed sketched most of his bucking horses at these stampedes. Ed, now in his early 40s, started to experiment with etchings. Childe Hassam was among the first artists to give him encouragement and advice. He took etching classes at the Art Student League and during this period did many of his finest etchings. Edward Borein had been in New York for 12 years with only a few interruptions, but these twelve years in New York transitioned him from being a cowboy who was also an artist to an accomplished artist who had been a real honest-to-goodness cowboy. He decided he had been away long enough and headed back to California. Ed's new studio once again became a hangout for his many friends. Then one day in 1921, he met the future Mrs. Borein. Ed proposed to her two days later, and they were married on June 27, 1921, at the home of his old friend, Charles Lummis. Ed was 49 years old and was ready to settle down. After their honeymoon in Arizona, Ed and Lucile chose Santa Barbara as their home and lived there for the rest of their lives. By the time Ed and Lucile came to Santa Barbara, Borein's place as an important Western artist was well established, and it did not take him very long to fit into the arts community. Ed became a member of the Santa Barbara Art Club, which held regular exhibitions of his work. But his reputation went far beyond his native state. Already a member of the American Artists Professional League and the PrintMakers Society of California, he participated in the 1927 International Exhibition in Florence, Italy, and the following year four of his etchings were shown in Paris by The American Federation of Arts. Navajo Visitors at Oraibi were given to the Bibliotheque Nationale. His reputation continued to grow, and in 1971, Edward Borein was posthumously elected into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame: the first native Californian to be so honored. Borein's watercolors started to catch on, but etchings were still his bread and butter. He loved the medium. For three years he taught an etching class at the Santa Barbara School of the Arts, and he was never too busy to assist or critique a serious student. He spent most of 1922 and 1923 working on new etching techniques. He did a series of etchings of the old California Missions, recording ten of the twenty one. Also in 1922, Gump's Gallery of San Francisco held a one-man show of Ed's etchings. The show received critical acclaim, and soon after he was elected to the Society of American Etchers. When friends like Charlie Russell, and Will Rogers would get together with Ed, there was never a dull moment. They would tell stories, which they called windies and smoke their self-rolled Bull Durhams, always using the typical, humorous Western lingo, which is quite evident in their correspondence. Though all were literate and well-spoken men, they would use the most atrocious grammar and spelling. Charlie liked to write and illustrate his letters, but Ed hated writing and preferred the personal contact, although a few of his illustrated letters do exist. Ed illustrated a number of books, among them: The Pinto Horse and Phantom Bull by Charles Perkins. In between sketching and drawing, he would play his guitar, work on his miniature saddles, or braid rawhide. But mostly he would draw and sketch. His fingers moved very fast, and with just a few strokes a perfect little horse would appear. Interestingly enough, neither his style, nor his palate changed much, and he rarely dated his work after the New York period. Borein produced a vast number of etchings during the Santa Barbara years. In 1930, Ed became a founding member of an equestrian group known as Los Rancheros Visitadores, which is based on the old Spanish custom of making group trail rides to visit local ranches. To this day, every May, with the exception of the war years, hundreds of men come to Santa Barbara from all over the United States to enjoy the fellowship of this event. On May 19, 1945, while at his El Paseo studio, in the middle of one of his famous stories, Ed complained of chest pains. He died the same day. Edward Borein was eulogized two days later as the Last artist of the longhorn era. To quote from the Santa Barbara News Press: ….With etching tool and brush, with acid and paint Ed Borein 'wrote' the history of America's West, of a way of living and -- all important -- of a way of thinking, that will be part of America's strength long after the details of the West are forgotten. Marlene R. Miller
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