(1866–1939)

Born in Dayton, Ohio, and growing up there, Elanor Colburn studied at the Art Institute of Chicago a total of eight years, and also served for one year, 1900, as an assistant teacher. In addition she studied with William Merritt Chase and Frank Duveneck.

She remained active in Chicago until 1924, when she moved to Laguna Beach, California with her well-known artist daughter, Ruth Eaton Peabody. They built a studio on the South Coast Highway where they lived, painted and taught. In 1927, having recovered from some prolonged spells of illness, she resumed her painting career with seriousness, and having developed an interest in Native American culture, began traveling for subjects including to the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. She also painted in Palm Springs, (Primordial Days in Palm Springs); New Mexico (In the Pueblo) and among the Navajos (In the Hogan) and (The Navajo).

Her style is described as “evolving from a type of Impressionism to Dynamic Symmetry”. It differed from the usual definition of Impressionism because it had more abstract forms, often geometric.

Because of two marriages and also using her maiden name, she is listed with a variety of names: Eleanor Eaton (1886-1890); Eleanor Gump (1895-1896); Eleanor Colburn (1900-1903). In 1927, she changed the spelling of her first name to Elanor. Her first husband had the last name of Eaton and was the father of her daughter. Her second husband was Joseph Elliott Colburn, an opthamologist and artist, and she continued using his name even though they divorced in 1915.

Colburn became a member of the Laguna Beach Art Association, which she served as Director from 1926 to 1929, and was also a member of the San Diego Art Guild and the Painters and Sculptors Club of Los Angeles. Exhibition venues included the Cincinnati Art Museum, Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego and the John Herron Institute in Indianapolis.

Elanor Colburn died in Laguna Beach on May 7, 1939. Pictured above is a portrait of Elanor Colburn, painted by her daughter, Ruth Peabody.

(1866–1936)

E.I. Couse was born in Saginaw, Michigan, where he first started drawing the Chippewa Indians who lived nearby. Couse worked hard to pay for his art education, occasionally dropping out to earn money while attending the Art Institute of Chicago, and the National Academy of Design. In 1886 Eanger Irving Couse left for Paris to study at the Academie Julian, where he met the American artist, Joseph Henry Sharp, who often spoke of Taos. Couse met his future wife, Virginia Walker, an illustration student in Paris, in 1887, and they were married in 1889. Moving back to the United States, the couple settled in Washington State at Virginia’s family ranch. Couse was interested in attempting to create a painting with Native American indians as the subject matter, eventually producing a historical work titled “The Captive” based on an incident known as the “Whitman Massacre”. This painting was shown at the Paris Salon in in 1892 and is now part of the permanent collection at the Phoenix Art Museum. In 1893 Couse and his wife moved back to France, where they remained in a small coastal town in Picardy for three years as he continued to paint in the small art colony. Their son Kibbey was born there prior to the family’s return to the United States.

Couse would become a frequent visitor and resident of Taos from 1902 on, when he heard about the town from his friend Ernest Blumenschein. He focused primarily on paintings of the Indigenous people who lived in the surrounding area. In 1912 when the historically important Taos Society of Artists was formed, Couse was elected its first President. The original founding members of the group, known collectively as the “Taos Six” included Couse, Joseph Henry Sharp, Oscar Berninghaus, Bert Geer Phillips, W. Herbert Dunton, and Ernest Blumenschein. Later members included E. Martin Hennings and Walter Ufer.

E. Irving Couse is best known for his intimate images of Native Americans in moments of spiritual ceremony and quiet repose. 

(1901–1962)

Herndon Davis was an American artist, journalist, illustrator, and painter. He worked at the National War College in Washington, D.C., creating maps of China and Japan. Davis was an illustrator for New York, Washington, D.C., and Denver newspapers. He was also commissioned to make paintings and murals.

He moved to Denver in 1936, where his paintings captured notable people and landmarks of Denver and the west. "In some cases Davis provides the only extant image of certain people and places. In hundreds of colorful paintings and drawings he adds impressively to our portrait gallery," according to James X. Kroll, Manager, Western History and Genealogy Department of the Denver Public Library, where many of Davis works are exhibited.

His subjects ranged from notorious prostitutes, like Ella "Cattle Kate" Watson, to Governor Ralph Lawrence Carr. Davis made paintings of houses and mansions, like that owned by William Byers. He also captured the stately Tabor Grand Opera House and buildings that had significantly changed over time. Davis created a painting of an art gallery that used to be a brothel and another of a "shabby" apartment building that has been an elegant hotel. He painted The Face on the Barroom Floor, depicting his wife, on the bar room floor of Teller House in Central City.

(1889–1975)

Paul Lauritz was born at Larvik, Norway. He was the son of Lauritz Olsen and his wife Maren Sofie. He first moved to Vancouver, Canada at age 16 to live with relatives. He worked his way west as a commercial artist in Vancouver and Portland before moving to Alaska during the Gold Rush. In 1919, he moved to Los Angeles and opened a studio at the Lyceum Theatre. Besides painting, he also taught at the Chouinard Art Institute and the Otis Art Institute, and he was the president of the California Art Club.

His work is in the permanent collections of the Crocker Art Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He is represented at The Irvine Museum, San Diego Museum of Art and Carnegie Art Museum (Oxnard, California).

(1910–1982)

Robert Lougheed, who came to be known as “the painter’s painter,” was born and raised on a farm in Ontario, Canada. As a young child, Bob spent hours on the farm sketching animals and wildlife. After contemplating a career as a professional hockey player, he decided to become an artist. He moved to Toronto to work as a newspaper illustrator, while studying at night at the Ontario College of Art. At the age of 25 Bob began a life-long friendship with another illustrator named John Clymer. It was Clymer who convinced Bob to move to New York, where he studied under Frank Vincent Dumond at the famed Arts Students League. He continued working for thirty years as an illustrator and his work appeared in magazines such as National Geographic, Sports Afield and Reader’s Digest.

In the late 1930’s, Bob decided to move back to Canada and en-list in the Canadian Army. He was stationed in Quebec outside of Valleyfield where he continued to paint often. His Post Commander was so impressed with his talent that he allowed Bob time off to study at Ecole des Beaux Arts in Montreal. Bob received orders to ship out to Europe shortly before the war ended, but was released from service before shipping out.

(1810–1874)

Miller was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the eldest of nine children of George W. and Harriet J. Miller. Miller’s father was a merchant and tavern keeper in central Baltimore, and also had a farm in Hawkins Point. Miller attended a private school in Baltimore, John D. Craig’s Academy, but did not receive formal art instruction there. He may have received his first lessons in art from Thomas Sully. In 1832, with the financial support of his family and art patrons in Baltimore, Miller traveled to Paris to study art. He was admitted as an auditor to life drawing classes at the École des Beaux-Arts, and copied paintings in the collections of the Louvre.In 1833, he traveled to Italy, visiting Bologna, Florence, and Venice before settling in Rome, where he studies at the English Life School.During his travels in Europe, he became friends with the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorwaldsen and studied with the French painter Horace Vernet.

He returned to Baltimore in 1834, where he opened a downtown studio and advertised himself as a painter of portraits and Old Master copies. Professional and financial difficulties may have prompted his decision to move to New Orleans in 1837. The city was a relatively open market for artists, and Miller quickly established a studio on Chartes Street and began receiving orders for portraits. It was in his studio that he met the Scottish aristocrat and adventurer, Sir William Drummond Stewart.

Stewart hired Miller to accompany him and record his hunting journey to the Rocky Mountains.That same year, along with representatives of the American Fur Company, they ventured as far as Fort William and Green River.

After returning to New Orleans later that year, Miller started working up his sketches in watercolors and oils. The scenes and incidents of the hunting journey were the foundation of a series of paintings documenting Native Americans of the United States. In July 1838 Miller was able to arrange an exhibition in New Orleans. In October 1840 he traveled with his paintings to Stewart’s Murthly Castle in Scotland, where a collection of his commissioned work was ultimately hung.

After spending a year in Scotland and another in London, Miller returned to Baltimore in April 1842. He established himself as an acknowledged portrait artist in the city. He died on June 26, 1874.

The “Portrait of the Captain Stewart With Indians by Campfire” captures a moment of quiet negotiations, planning, or possible storytelling around the firelight. Stewart was a distinguished member at any rendezvous and was often surrounded by trappers and Indians. Miller captured a glimpse of nuance in the historical adventures of westward visions in this gem of a painting.

(1884–1954)

Reinhold H. Palenske was a student of Wellington Reynolds during his time at the Art Institute of Chicago. Original works by Palenske are rare to come by, as the visual artist was best known for his exceptional approach to dry-point printmaking. Etching images into copper plates, Palenske’s works act as record and celebration of the American West.

(1886–1953)

F. Winold Reiss was a German-born American artist and graphic designer. He was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, the second son of Fritz Reiss (1857–1914) and his wife. He grew up surrounded by art, as his father was a well-known landscape artist and his brother became a sculptor.

Reiss became a portraitist. His philosophy was that an artist must travel to find the most interesting subjects; influenced by his father and his own curiosity, he drew subjects from many peoples and walks of life. In 1913 he immigrated to the United States, where he was able to follow his interest in Native Americans. In 1920 he went West for the first time, working for a lengthy period on the Blackfeet Reservation. Over the years Reiss painted more than 250 works depicting Native Americans. These paintings by Reiss became known more widely beginning in the 1920 and to the 1950s, when the Great Northern Railway commissioned Reiss to do paintings of the Blackfeet which were then distributed widely as lithographed reproductions on Great Northern calendars. In 1931, and 1934-37, Reiss organized a summer art school, also referred to as an artists’ colony near Glacier National Park.