Edward Borein
(American, 1872-1945)
Herding Longhorns
watercolor and gouache on paper
signed Edward Borein (lower right)
15 1/4 x 20 3/8 inches
Property from an Estate, Sold to Benefit the Wichita Art Museum

Provenance:
M. Knoedler & Co., New York, New York (framing label, verso)


After leaving his home near Oakland, California at an early age, Edward Borein drove cattle throughout the Southwest and Mexico, learning and sharing in the life of the cowboy and vaquero, sketching from the saddle, as it were. When his mother saw his sketches she enrolled him in art school in San Francisco. School stifled Borein. He returned to cowboying, continuing to sketch his experiences. As his art improved, the magazines back East took notice and published his work. This, in turn, brought him into the company of Maynard Dixon and Charles Russell, both of whom became Borein's friends. Borein settled in Santa Barbara, where he made a career and befriended many Hollywood stars, Will Rogers among them. Borein was an accomplished oil painter and printmaker, and his watercolors are counted among the finest in American Western Art. In Herding Longhorns, Borein gives us a glimpse of life on a cattle drive in an almost documentary mode. This is a peaceful moment. The herd is moving and staying together. The three cowboys ride easily. Even the landscape, rising to the soft peaks, seems to be slumbering. This is the kind of day the cowboy hopes for every day.
-James D. Balestrieri