Joe De Yong
 I have a friend in Joe De Yong. I never knew him or met him in person but the more I read and learn about him and research his artwork; I feel I know him. I feel his passion for the West and know, in life, we would be friends.
Joe De Yong was the only person to ever apprentice to the great cowboy artist, Charles M. Russell. Artist Joe Beeler knew Joe De Yong quite well. They wrote to each other often and exchanged those mystical of western moments between artists – the illustrated letter. Awash with color, imagery and encouraging words their letters helped each other grow as artists and as westerners.
Joe De Yong thrived in the shadow of Russell and after the passing of his mentor, De Yong tried for the rest of his life to keep that special glow of Russell’s West alive.
Following is a passage he wrote to a friend in July of 1963 while living out his last years in Hollywood, California. Joe De Yong, cowboy artist and our western friend, died in 1975.
- WCR, Santa Ynez, CA. October 2002
"My Years With Charles Russell"
by Joe De Yong
While I could always draw well enough as a kid to take the ability for granted, I had no particular idea of ever becoming an artist. In fact, handling young hosses and "follerin after cattle" were my main interests in life! And I wasn't looking for anything better.
Until just before my nineteenth birthday, a definite trick of fate – in the form of cerebro-menengitis, which left totally deaf – turned me to painting and modeling just to kill time.
Having been an admirer of the work of Charles Russell – the cowboy artist of Montana – ever since I was ten years old, I wrote to him for some pointers on methods and materials in modeling. To which I received one of his now-famous, illustrated letters in reply.
From then on – further encouragement by his kindly interest as expressed in a second letter – I was hell-bent to go to Montana, a move that eventually led to my spending ten unbelievable years in Russell's studio. Not only did I work with him, but we often rode together and sometimes camped together in the high mountains and the unfenced Indian Reservations where I got to see his country and his people through his eyes.
Of course, these was a lot about those priceless years that I – in my carefree, almost kid-like, way – pretty much took for granted. Until... one beautiful, fall day, when the frost had turned the aspens to yellow and gold, he simply set out on his high-lonesome and, traveling slow and steady, - as was his way – rode out of sight over the skyline.
Always far better mounted as he was, I’d often found it hard to stay in sight of his dust (in art and in life!) so that, even though I steadily dogged his tracks, I could never catch up with him again. And while he wasn’t the sort to just ride off and leave a friend on his own, that way, I finally realized that he was crowding a deadline…with the end of his trail timed and measured.
And now that I – a good eight years older than he was at that never-to-be-forgotten time – find myself following a steeper and steeper trail. I sometimes look forward to what may lie ahead beyond that high pass that is said to cut a notch in those snow-capped mountains that lie straight ahead.
Will the colors of the far-country be as bright?
Will the range still be unfenced, and
none of the old trails plowed-under?
Will the same old friends gather together at night?
Sometimes, I can’t help but wonder!
Joe De Yong
Hollywood, California
July 28, 1963 |
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Harold Davidson
 It is acknowledged by collectors of important Western art that if not for the fact that Harold Davidson "discovered" the work of Edward Borein, the artist's fame and skill as one of the top five delineators of the old West would not have the reputation he enjoys today.
Davidson, a long time dealer and appraiser of fine art of the West, living in Santa Barbara, began accumulating the work of the talented but still relatively still unknown artist in the late 1950's. As his research and interest uncovered more diversity in Borein's media, his style, and interesting personal history, it became apparent that the artist showed great potential. With his dedication to drawing accurate and detailed pictures of the real life cowboys and Indians in the early West, he left a record of a rugged lifestyle that has all but disappeared.
In 1964, Davidson began writing and printing a detailed price bulletin of Borein's art. After thirty years and sixty-six issues, he ceased writing the bulletins and concentrated on authenticating and appraising the artist's work. To date, Davidson has recorded over 4,000 separate authentications and has appraised over five hundred pieces of the artist's work with value in excess of 35 million dollars.
During the same years, Davidson researched and authored four books, including the major biography Edward Borein, Cowboy Artist. Also, he wrote the Lost Works of Edward Borein and Edward Borein, the Update, all considered the definitive reference sources of Borein's life and career. Davidson collaborated with John Galvin in the collection and identification of over three hundred etchings, which included illustrations and numbered dimensions, entitled "Etchings of Edward Borein". Today, Davidson estimates that the probable total amount of existing different etchings is around 427.
Before Davidson became less active, he was in great demand to appear at Western art seminars and museum exhibitions where Borein's work was on display. At many, he vetted the collection and made presentations of materials included in his vast library of Borein's lost work, variety of signatures and fraudulent copies. Indeed, one of Davidson's letters of authentication is considered a "must" today by Borein collectors worldwide.
Harold Davidson passed away in 2003. He will be missed by his friends and the western community. He was a fine man and a good friend.
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Edward Borein
 The career and achievement of Edward Borein are typical of one aspect of American life, an aspect that is fast losing its picturesque flavor – the life of the cowboy and Indian on the ranches and southwestern plains. Borein was the cowpuncher translated into art. He was cheerful, generous, matter-of-fact, hardworking in his way, yet careless and happy-go-lucky. He had the courtesy and nobility characteristic of simple men who have passed their lives in contact with nature. He asked no questions in life, he was content to picture it and describe it with art. Again, his emphasis was more upon aesthetic values. His interest is in accuracy and consistency of treatment; he puts into his pictures the accumulated treasures of more than thirty years of experience and keen observation. The minuteness of his observation is illustrated by an amusing little tilt he one had with Colonel Cody ("Buffalo Bill") while showing him some of his pictures, saying that he had never heard of such an application of a "Winter-Count." The old chief, Iron Tail, was called in to settle the matter and confirmed Borein's contention that Indians used to make "Winter-Counts" or records of the exploits that occurred year by year, on their blankets. Borein's comment on the incident was the reflection that "people often don't see things until they see them in a picture".
Edward Borein was born in San Leandro, California, in 1873. His father was an "old timer", a deputy of the famous sheriff, Harry Morse. At that time, Alameda County was still ranching country, and among his earliest recollections are those of the now extinct long-horned cattle being driven through San Leandro. He saw steers break away and finally captured with lassos in the Court House green. A traveling circus first stimulated his boyish interest in the drawing of horses. He was so enthusiastic about the trappings of the horses that he got himself apprenticed to a saddler. He next fell under the spell of the cowpuncher's life – all this while still a mere boy – and went to live at the great Spanish cattle ranch of Jesus Maria in Santa Barbara County. He became a full-fledged cowboy, and in the words C.F. Lummis, "his school became the cattle ranges of California and Mexico; his book, Nature; his tools, the reata; his home, a California saddle".
He wandered far and wide, always in search of new sights and scenes. He worked his way all through Mexico down to Guatemala and all through the American plains and California to the Canadian border. Meanwhile, whenever he got the chance he would make drawings and sketches just for his own amusement. At night, after the day's work was done and his fellow workers were taking their ease, he would labor with his pencil and paper trying to sketch some picturesque figure or reproduce some vivid pictorial impression. He had been making drawings about the ranches for many years before he had any notion that they might be valuable. "A couple of college fellows on their way to the coast stopped at the ranch, saw my drawings tacked up in the bunk house and said I ought to send them to the magazines. I sent them to Charlie Lummis and he sent me fifteen dollars. That was my first downfall," he said with a droll turn in his voice. It was not until some years later that he took up etching, and then with a deliberate and conscious purpose. He wished to preserve some record of the manners and customs of the Indians in an art from that would be accessible to all people. So it is that in his etchings one finds a realistic picture of a life and time that are doomed soon to disappear.
Nature has been his only teacher. In his whole career he has had but one month's drawing instruction. "My mother", he said, "once sent me to an art school in San Francisco. She paid for three months. I was there one month. I couldn't draw the playthings they had there (meaning the antique casts). I think they would knock art out of any one – those things."
Copyright 2002 John T. Reynolds
Santa Barbara, CA
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Jay Dusard
 The North American Cowboy: A Portrait
Jay Dusard, a self-taught photographer, hasn't done too badly. Not bad at all, if you consider a 1981 Guggenheim Fellowship, a Pulitzer Prize nomination, a couple of book awards - plus having studied and taught with legendary photographer Ansel Adams. Not bad for a guy with a degree in architecture who has cashed a few cowpunchin' paychecks in years past.
With work published, exhibited and in collections worldwide, Jay Dusard is best known for his black-and-white images of the working cowboys and landscapes of the North American West. Jay taught photography for seven years at Prescott College, Arizona, and has conducted photography workshops for over thirty years. In 1992 he was nominated for the Kodak World Image Award for Fine Art Photography.
Jay Dusard lives with his wife, Kathie, and their horses near Douglas, Arizona, where he finds time to punch cows and play jazz cornet
The North American Cowboy
 Photographer Jay Dusard raised the bar for portraits of working cowpunchers with his landmark book, The North American Cowboy. It's been out of print for nearly twenty years, and rare used copies are sometimes available at premium collector prices.
The 100 unbound copies set aside in 1983 were believed lost for many years. Recently found in perfect condition they have been leather-bound and are now available in two limited offerings.
Edition of 10: SOLD OUT
Leather-bound book in leather slipcase.
Original silver print made and signed by Jay Dusard.
Digital silver print approved and signed by Jay Dusard. $1250 plus $20 insurance.
 Edition of 90:
Leather-bound book in cloth slipcase.
Digital silver print approved and signed by Jay Dusard.
$750 plus $20 insurance.
This first-edition book will never be republished, so here is your surest opportunity to obtain a copy.
The leather binding and slipcases were designed and produced by Mike Roswell at Roswell Bookbinding in Phoenix, Arizona.
The digital silver prints were made by Brooks Jensen at LensWork Publishing in Anacortes, Washington. Brooks pioneered the making of extraordinary facsimile fine-art photographs that are virtually indistinguishable from prints personally made by the photographer. A high-resolution digital negative is made from a master print supplied by the photographer, then contact printed onto premium black-and-white photographic paper, which is processed to the highest archival standards.
"I photographed Julie Hagen back in 1981 with my 8x10-inch view camera. This image is my favorite from the book, and the clear choice to accompany the limited edition. Of the 83 book plates it's the most difficult to print, requiring numerous dodges and burns and extensive hand bleaching with potassium ferricyanide. It would have been literally impossible for me to personally print one hundred Julies. In scanning my master print, Brooks was able to elicit a couple of subtleties that I had never achieved. He then went on to produce a set of prints more beautiful than I could ever have made. I sign them with pleasure and pride."
- Jay Dusard
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