William Herbert "Buck" Dunton (August 28, 1878 – March 18, 1936) was an American artist and a founding member of the

Taos Society of Artists The Taos Society of Artists was an organization of visual arts founded in Taos, New Mexico. Established in 1915, it was disbanded in 1927. The Society was essentially a commercial cooperative, as opposed to a stylistic collective, and its foundation ...

. He is noted for paintings of cowboys,

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, and the

American Southwest The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado ...

Early life and education

Dunton worked as a

ranch A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most ofte ...

hand as a youth and studied at the

Cowles Art School Cowles Art School (Cowles School of Art) was established in 1883, in a studio building located at 145 Dartmouth Street in Boston, Massachusetts. It was one of the largest art schools in the city and boasted an enrollment of several hundred until it ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

. He moved to New York City around 1903, where he worked as an illustrator for publishing companies. In 1912 he briefly studied at the Art Student's League, where Ernest Blumenschein told him about

Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Ch ...

Artistic career

He first visited Taos in 1912 and became part of the

Taos art colony The Taos art colony was an art colony founded in Taos, New Mexico, by artists attracted by the culture of the Taos Pueblo and northern New Mexico. The history of Hispanic craftsmanship in furniture, tin work, and other mediums also played a rol ...

. Dunton became one of the founding members of the

in 1915. Among his proteges in

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

art was

Harold Dow Bugbee Harold Dow Bugbee (August 15, 1900 – March 27, 1963) was an American Western artist, illustrator, painter, and curator of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas.Bugbee exhibit, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, ...

of Clarendon and Canyon in the

Texas Panhandle The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a square-shaped area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east. It is adjacent to ...

. In 1921, American oil executive W. H. McFadden commissioned Dunton to paint a full-length portrait of big-game hunter Ben Lilly. The portrait was exhibited by the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...

before being located in McFadden's home in New Orleans. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics.

References

External links

AskArt: ''William Herbert Dunton'', BiographyAfrica Hunting: Painting of Ben Lilly by Herbert DuntonW. Herbert Dunton
at

New Mexico Museum of Art The New Mexico Museum of Art is an art museum in Santa Fe governed by the state of New Mexico. It is one of four state-run museums in Santa Fe that are part of the Museum of New Mexico. It is located at 107 West Palace Avenue, one block off the ...

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dunton, W. Herbert Buck 1878 births 1936 deaths 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters Artists from Taos, New Mexico Artists of the American West Painters from Maine Painters from New Mexico People from Augusta, Maine Taos Society of Artists Olympic competitors in art competitions 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists