By Olaf Wieghorst
Located in San Antonio, TX
Olaf Wieghorst
(1899 - 1988)
California, New York, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas Artist
Image Size: 20 x 24
Frame Size: 29.5 x 33
Medium: oil
1946
"Home Corral" California Olaf Wieghorst
Without a doubt one of if not the most colorful Wieghorst paintings ever done. Signed lower left. Titled on verso. Dated on verso.
In very nice condition. Has been professionally cleaned. Has very fine craquelure in the tree branches and a small spot below the horse that is really only visible if you are extremely close to the painting or with magnification. One of his finest paintings. Also please view my other Wieghorst from the same estate. I have included close up photos as well as photos taken in natural light, spot light and fluorescent lighting.
Olaf Wieghorst
(1899 - 1988)
California, New York, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas Artist
Image Size: 20 x 24
Frame Size: 29.5 x 33
Medium: oil
"Home Corral"
Dated 1946
Biography
Olaf Wieghorst (1899 - 1988)
Born in Viborg, Denmark, Olaf Wieghorst was a child acrobatic performer from the age of nine when he began appearances at Tivoli Theater in Copenhagen and later toured Europe. He also learned horseback riding working on a stock farm, and horses became a major focus of his admiration and later his painting.
In 1918, he arrived in the United States, having worked as a cabin boy on a steamer. He served in the 5th U.S. Cavalry on the Mexican border in the days of Pancho Villa. He later recalled a favorite horse from that period and said that riding through El Paso in 1921, the horse fell on his ankle and broke it. The outfit was heading to Douglas, Arizona, and not wanting to be left behind with his injury, he stayed on the horse which carried him all the way through the New Mexico desert on one of the hottest days of the year. The horse died during the night, having expended all his energy on saving Wieghorst. He later wrote that when the Cavalry discarded the use of horses, "they took the soul out of that great branch of the service" ("Widening Horizons").
He wandered extensively through the West sometimes on horseback, finding work in Arizona and New Mexico as a cowboy. Then he went to New York and served as a mounted policeman until 1944, spending most of his time on a horse named Rhombo patrolling the Central Park bridle paths and saving many people injury from runaway horses. He began painting in his spare time, and he was successful enough that his work was represented by the Grand Central Art Galleries of the Biltmore Hotel.
In 1944, he settled in El Cajon, California. His paintings include cowboys, horses, and Indians in landscape, but there is little if any collectible art of his done during his early days in the West. His primary output came after his return to California when he began painting cowboys and horses extensively. He did numerous horse portraits, spending time on ranches studying their unique personalities. He painted celebrity horses including Roy Rogers' Trigger, Gene Autry's Champion and Tom Morgan's stallion.
He was a large, powerful, handsome, and very personable man.
Source:
Kathleen Wade
Olaf Carl Wieghorst (1899-1988)
He arrived in the U.S. in 1918, joining the U.S.
Cavalry, & patrolled the Mexico border in New Mexico & Arizona . When he mustered out of the army, he drifted, ending up as a wrangler on
the Cunningham Ranch near Alma, New Mexico.
By the mid-twenties,
Wieghorst was in New York City, working as a mounted policeman - his
relationships with the many horses that were a part of his life became
the common denominator of his paintings. Living in California by the end
of WWII, he began a career that spiraled to success, in part due to his
engaging personality.
His paintings have appeared in numerous solo
& retrospective exhibitions including the National Cowboy &
Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City (1974), The Tucson Museum of Art,
Arizona (1981), & the San Diego Historical Society, California
(2002).
His work was the subject of the 1970 biography, "Olaf Wieghorst"
by William Reed...
Category
1940s Impressionist Landscape Paintings
