David Shepherd

"Herd of Elephants", David Shepherd, 20x35.5, Original Oil, Realistic Wildlife

1984

"Snow Geese" By Larry Fanning is an ideal paintings for the wildlife lover. Five white snow geese are flying low at a rough oceans edge for the winter. ...

Imagine standing a short distance from two red foxes in the white and blue fluffy snow as the sun begins to rise. The snow has fallen so gently upon the pine trees and forest floor p...

It was Henry Cross's portraits of horses belonging to the prominent breeders and trainers of the second half of the nineteenth century that won the artist renown as an animal painter. Born and raised in upstate New York, Cross's proficiency in both drafting and caricature was revealed while he was still a student at the Binghamton Academy, New York. In 1852, when he was only fifteen years old, Cross joined a traveling circus that took him to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and to the first of many Indian encampments that he would draw upon for subject matter throughout his career. Biographers differ as to the year Cross left for Europe, however, he was in Paris from 1852 to 1853 or 1854, where he studied with Rosa Bonheur, a highly esteemed French painter of horses. Upon Cross's return to the United States he was commissioned to paint the studs of wealthy horsemen, including those of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, Robert Bonner, the owner-publisher of The New York Ledger, and "Copper King" Marcus Daly, whose 18,000 acre stock farm was reputed to be the greatest and most valuable horse ranch in the world. Although Cross received the highest pay of any equine artist of his day (up to $35,000. for one order, according to The Horse Review of April 10, 1918, p. 328), he frequently joined traveling circuses and painted the locales where they visited. He also painted portraits of notable contemporaries, such as President Abraham Lincoln, ex-president Ulysses S. Grant, King Edward VII of England, W. F. "Buffalo Bill...

James Fairman "Sunset" c. 1880 Oil on Canvas Signed Lower Left Site: 32.5 x 29.5 inches Framed: 46 x 42 inches James Fairman worked as a landscape painter, critic, lecturer, musicia...