Lloyd Harting (1901 - 1974)
Lloyd Harting was an illustrator, animator and watercolorist who specialized in scenes of the Old West. Harting was born in Little Falls, Minnesota and enrolled in the College of Engineering at the University of Minnesota before deciding on a career in art. He attended the Minneapolis School of fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Grand Central School of art in New York.
Harting created advertising and calendar illustrations for the printing agent, Brown and Bigelow, for thirty years, like world famous Western painter, Charles M. Russell who's works sell in the millions of dollars. He also painted movie advertisements and worked in movie production at 20th Century Fox and as an art director for Walt Disney Studios for a total of about nine years. He is credited as an art director for Disney's Bambi, released in 1942. He was commissioned by the United States Navy to paint in the Far East, and in the early 1960's, the United States Air Force sent him to paint at various locations around the world. Near the end of his life, Harting painted illustrations for two books on Spanish Colonial history in California.
Harting worked primarily in watercolor and had a detailed , realistic style that owes equally to Charlie Russell and to popular illustration of the 1930's. His favorite subjects were action scenes of the Old West including Indians, cowboys, prospectors, railroads, and wagon trains. He also painted wintry scenes of his native Midwest and historical views of the Spanish missions in California.
His works are displayed at the Air Force Collection in Washington D.C.. Strong demand for Harting's works is demonstrated by the wholesale dealer auction price of $12,870 for "Indians Attacking Stagecoach (size 21" x 29")
Other sales: The Invaders (watercolor on paper 22" x 30" $7,500), Indians Watching Train (watercolor on paper 21.5" x 29.5" $7,475),