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132

Borein, Edward (1873 - 1945)

Currency:USD Category:Art Start Price:60,000.00 USD Estimated At:60,000.00 - 80,000.00 USD
Borein, Edward (1873 - 1945)
<strong>Borein, Edward </strong>
(1873 - 1945)

<strong>Indian War Party</strong>

ink and gouache on paper
21 1/4 x 27 inches (sight)
signed lower right: <i>EDWARD BOREIN</i>

John Edward Borein’s abilities as an artist were apparent from an early age. Growing up in the town of San Leandro, not far from Oakland on the main northern California cattle trail, the steady stream of cattle, cowboys, and vaqueros passing through inspired the young Borein to begin sketching when he was no more than five years old. Encouraged by his family to pursue
his artistic ambitions, Borein enrolled briefly in the San Francisco Art Association School where he studied alongside an exceptional group of similarly talented and aspiring young artists that included Maynard Dixon, Jimmy Swinnerton, Homer Davenport, and Xavier Martinez. Borein soon left school to live the life of a cowboy himself, and for several years he worked up and down the length of California and into Mexico, constantly honing his skills as an artist as he went. Borein moved to New York in 1907 to pursue further art studies and to further his reputation as an artist. Borein studied the techniques of etching and aquatint at the Art Students League under the tutelage of Voitjtech Preissig and was highly proficient in the medium by the time of his return to the West in 1919.

After his marriage to Lucile Maxwell in 1921, Borein relocated to Santa Barbara where he began to
focus his energies on producing watercolors. He had experimented briefly with watercolors many years earlier, during his cowboy days in Mexico, but ultimately ended up putting away his brush and water colors for over twenty years. Reapplying himself to the medium in the ‘20s, he soon commanded a masterful technique. Borein did produce very fine oil paintings, but he truly excelled with paper media: watercolor, gouache, etching, and ink and pencil drawings. He sketched constantly, filling page after loose page with images of cowboys, Indians, horses, and cattle,
which his wife would gather up and preserve in portfolios.

Large ink and gouache pieces such as <i>Indian War Party</i> are more formal works and exhibit the artist’s consummate skill as a draftsman. A technique that Borein frequently employed in his large ink works was to spatter a fine mist of ink (or gouache) across the blank paper, creating atmospheric effects that could be employed to energize areas of sky, ground, or both. Borein masked off sections of the paper leaving blank areas to create a horizon line, as seen in <i>Indian War Party,</i> or to insert figures into the composition. Techniques such as this required that the artist have a clear concept of the piece before any of the figurative elements were introduced.—DC






John Edward Borein’s abilities as an artist were apparent from an early age.
Growing up in the town of San Leandro, not far from Oakland on the main
northern California cattle trail, the steady stream of cattle, cowboys, and
vaqueros passing through inspired the young Borein to begin sketching when he
was no more than five years old. Encouraged by his family to pursue his
artistic ambitions, Borein enrolled briefly in the San Francisco Art
Association School where he studied alongside an exceptional group of similarly
talented and aspiring young artists that included Maynard Dixon, Jimmy
Swinnerton, Homer Davenport, and Xavier Martinez. Borein soon left school to
live the life of a cowboy himself, and for several years he worked up and down
the length of California and into Mexico, constantly honing his skills as an
artist as he went.

Borein moved to New York in 1907 to pursue further art studies and to further
his reputation as an artist. Borein studied the techniques of etching and
aquatint at the Art Students League under the tutelage of Voitjtech Preissig
and was highly proficient in the medium by the time of his return to the West
in 1919. After his marriage to Lucile Maxwell in 1921, Borein relocated to
Santa Barbara where he began to increasingly focus his energies on producing
watercolors. He had experimented briefly with watercolors many years earlier,
during his cowboy days in Mexico, but ultimately ended up putting away his
brush and water paints for over twenty years. Reapplying himself to the medium
in the ‘20s, he soon commanded a masterful technique.

Borein did produce very fine oil paintings, but he truly excelled with paper
media: watercolor, gouache, etching, ink and pencil drawings. He sketched
constantly, filling page after loose page with images of cowboys, Indians,
horses, and cattle, which his wife would gather up and preserve in portfolios.
Large ink and gouache pieces such as Indian War Party are more formal works and
exhibit the artist’s consumate skill as a draftsman. A technique that Borein
frequently employed in his large ink works was to spatter a fine mist of ink
(or gouache) across the blank paper, creating atmospheric effects that could be
employed to energize areas of sky, ground, or both. Borein masked off sections
of the paper leaving blank areas to create a horizon line, as seen in Indian
War Party, or to insert figures into the composition. Techniques such as this
required that the artist have a clear concept of the piece before any of the
figurative elements were introduced.
DC

Provenance:
Estate of Dr. Otey Johnson, Ardmore, Oklahoma

Literature:
Edward S. Spaulding, ed., Borein's West by Edward Borein, Santa Barbara,
California: Edward Borein Memorial, 1952
Harold G. Davidson, Edward Borein, Cowboy Artist, Garden City, New York:
Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1974
Harold G. Davidson, Edward Borein: Cowboy Artist, Santa Fe, New Mexico: Gerald
Peters Gallery, 2000, illus. p. 85
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