dearest dot: an endearing collection of illustrated letters from harold bugbee to his "dearest...

An Endearing Collection of Letters and Illustrations from Harold Bugbee, to his “Dearest Dot”

A n E n d e a r i n g C o l l e c t i o n o f L e t t e r s & I l l u s t r at i o n s

f r o m H a r o l d B u g b e e t o h i s “ D e a r e s t D o t ”

William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art | 2143 Westheimer Road | Houston, Texas 77098 | 713.521.7500Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-5pm and by appointment, please call 713.521.7500 or email [email protected].

COVER ART: Riding with Dot, c. 1925, ink, 3.375 x 7.125 inches.ABOVE: Silhouette of Dot and Harold Riding, c. 1925, ink, 3.125 x 7.125 inches.

March 1 - April 30, 2016

It is March in Houston, and Rodeo season is underway, an annual agri/cultural gala calling all locals to embrace their genuine Texas roots and live the brand! The mammoth events associated with the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo now ranks among the city’s most prized traditions, constituting a nifty, month-long “Western heritage hoedown”. It’s all great fun when Houstonians everywhere pull out all the stops to “Go Texan”, making the high-classed bar-b-que circuits and rodeo rounds in freshly steamed Stetsons and flashy, custom-made boots!

Just in time for all these festivities, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, (Houston’s art gallery that actually “Went Texan” long ago—at least in terms of their art selections), rolls out a delightful new exhibition certain to capture the fancy of darn-near every urban cowboy now carousing the town. Of a Cowboy’s Sentiment proudly features illustrated letters, drawings, watercolors and paintings of Harold Dow Bugbee –Texas’ first true “cowboy artist”!

Growing up on the Bugbee family ranch in Clarendon, Texas, Harold worked as a cowboy and ranch-hand on his father’s spread, as well as a hired hand on neighboring ranches, including those of Charles Goodnight and others. He became steeped in the ways of the Panhandle’s cowboy and befriended many of the old sages and prominent cattlemen of those parts. While the young Bugbee proved capable as a cowboy (with credible accounts of his acuity with horse and lariat), it was his early propensity for drawing and painting that set him apart from his peers. Inspired and informed by the paintings of Western icons such as Charles Russell (1864-1926) and Frederic Remington (1861-1909), Bugbee eventually traded his

spurs for a life in art, recording the transitioning cowboy culture of the Southern plains in drawings and paintings comparable to his idol, “Charlie” Russell. He went on to achieve significant acclaim as a painter and illustrator, and to serve the first curator of art of the venerable Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas. His works from the first-half of the twentieth century comprise one of the most authentic and compelling visual records of the Texas cowboy, and are highly coveted among collectors of today.

Of a Cowboy’s Sentiment brings a rich and engaging array of over 100 sketches and paintings by the artist, including an incredible swath of heretofore undiscovered illustrated letters penned by a then-smitten young Bugbee to his once “best girl”. The extensive materials for this exhibition are aptly presented by Reaves | Foltz in a two-staged rollout.

The first stage of the exhibition, Bugbee’s illustrated “Letters to Dot”, goes on the walls March 1. This marvelous cache of illustrated correspondence, covering a period of about 1922-25, has descended through the family of Dorothy Carrell. Ms. Carrell, or “Dot” to the lovelorn young artist, was actually Bugbee’s first cousin who became a source of youthful infatuation and an unrequited first love. At some point along the line the full letters have been clipped and portions discarded by the family, with only the artist’s remarkable illustrations and partial notes remaining. However, even in their abridged state, the snippets of these wonderful letters still convey an affectionate and compelling story of romance on the Texas range, offering important bits of news from the Palo Duro, as well as interesting notes on local life upon the high-plains.

• O f A C o w b o y ’ s S e n t i m e n t : H a r o l d B u g b e e •

Of A Cowboy’s Sentiment:An Exhibition of Drawings and Paintings by Harold Dow Bugbee

(Presented In Two Stages)

Bugbee’s illustrated letters have never been the subject of an exhibition before, and in “Letters to Dot”, the gallery displays over 70 of the remaining fragments, each containing exquisite and complete illustrations carefully drafted by the artist as the visual overture for each intimate note to a cherished friend. The notes, along with their simple, yet elegant illustrations are nothing less than gems of cowboy history. They convey Bugbee’s remarkable facility as a draftsman and stand as demure and intimate statements of the cowboy’s true sentiment in art. This first section of the exhibition alone commands attention of local viewers seeking genuine cowboy imagery in the spirit of the Rodeo season.

In the show’s second stage, beginning March 25, the gallery partners with The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum to bring Houstonians an even broader array of Bugbee drawings, watercolors and oils. In this phase of the exhibition, the gallery hangs 30 additional Bugbee works reflecting the artist’s versatility as an illustrator and painter, and further underscoring his reputation as the “Charlie Russell of Texas”. These works, from the holdings of the PPHM, gives Texas art aficionados a rare opportunity to secure works by this signal cowboy painter, and proceeds from the sale go to support the museum’s outstanding Texas collection.

All-in-all, Of a Cowboy’s Sentiment provides the perfect fine arts compliment to the rodeo and livestock experience. Both components of this marvelous two-stage exhibition are accompanied by an electronic catalog, containing all images, as well as a recapitulation of Joe Holley’s wonderful story on Bugbee and his letter, originally published in the Houston Chronicle. The whole is experience is punctuated with Michael Grauer’s (the Panhandle-Plains esteemed art curator) gallery talk at the gallery on the afternoon of April 9. Always a popular and informative speaker, Grauer, who is currently

in the throes writing of a Bugbee biography, will share his insights and observations on Bugbee and his work.

This intriguing selection of sketches and paintings presented in both of these interconnected exhibitions offer a compelling story of the life and experiences of a talented young painter who emerged on the wide-open expanses of the Texas Panhandle. Of a Cowboy’s Sentiment is certain to inspire its viewers with exactly the type of Texas spirit and pride consistent with events at NRG Park. We issue fair warning, therefore, that the viewing experience will undoubtedly tug at one’s own sentimentality, and the works on the walls will sing out for Texas buyers to take these rare objects home. So, “Go Texan, Houston”; do it with a cowboy’s sentiment, and ya’ll come on out!

Be sure to check out Stage 2 of this exhibit, opening March 25, 2016!

• O f A C o w b o y ’ s S e n t i m e n t : H a r o l d B u g b e e •

Background on the Artist

At the suggestion of his cousin, cattleman T. S. Bugbee, Harold Dow Bugbee (1900-1963) came to the Texas Panhandle from Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1914 with his parents Charles H. and Grace Dow Bugbee. He attended high school at Clarendon and, showing an interest in sketching, studied architectural drawing at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1917.

Showing great promise as an artist, in 1919 he traveled to Taos, New Mexico, seeking instruction from W. Herbert Dunton (1878-1936) one of the founding members of the Taos Society of Artists and an artist whom he admired greatly. Although Dunton did not teach he and Bugbee remained friends until Dunton’s death in 1936. Following the advice of Bert Geer Phillips (1868-1956), another Taos “founder,” Bugbee enrolled at the Cumming School of Art in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1920.

After two years of academic study at Cumming, Bugbee returned to Texas and refocused on the Old West. Under the watchful eyes of cattlemen Frank Collinson (1855-1943) and Charles Goodnight (1836-1929), Bugbee sketched the landscape and wildlife of the Texas Panhandle, Indians and cowboys, and nostalgic scenes of the Panhandle-Plains frontier. Each Fall, from 1922 until the late 1930s, the artist traveled to Taos to paint with his fellow artists “Buck” Dunton, Frank Hoffman (1888-1958), Leon Gaspard (1882-1964), and Ralph Meyers (1885-1948), often packing into the mountains to paint with either Meyers or Dunton.

By the early 1930s, galleries in New York, Denver, Chicago, and Kansas City handled Bugbee’s work. He also turned to magazine illustration, a practice he maintained for some eighteen years, working for “pulps” and “slicks.” In 1933 Bugbee began illustrating for magazines such as Ranch Romances, Western Stories, Country Gentleman, and Field and Stream, among others, and books on Western history including J. Evetts Haley’s Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman, Willie

N. Lewis’s Between Sun and Sod, and S. Omar Barker’s Songs of the Saddleman and others. Additionally, Bugbee illustrated many Texas newspapers. He also illustrated the front cover of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Review from 1930 through 1962. All the while, Bugbee continued to make easel paintings.

Bugbee exhibited first in the Texas Panhandle in the late 1920s in Amarillo and Dalhart, then at the Tri-State Fair at Amarillo, Fort Worth Frontier Centennial Exposition in 1936, the Greater Texas and Pan-American Exposition at Dallas in 1937 (in the Hall of State), and in the annual West Texas art exhibitions at Fort Worth. He also had numerous solo exhibitions all over Texas and exhibited at Taos.

Bugbee designed the Doan’s Crossing bronze monument near Vernon, Texas, in 1931 (for which he receives no credit on the monument) then began painting murals. Under the Public Works of Art Project (1934) he painted the first of five murals for Pioneer Hall at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. Another New Deal mural followed in 1940.

After being drafted by the U. S. Army in 1942, Bugbee quickly completed a mural commission for the Old Tascosa supper club in Amarillo’s Herring Hotel. Following his discharge in 1943 because of his age and an injury suffered in “jump school,” he painted three murals for the Amarillo Army Air Field, two of which are now in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Bugbee became Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum’s first paid curator of art in 1951, agreeing to work part-time in that position so he could continue painting. He painted 17 murals of American Indian life for the Museum’s former Indian Hall and finished the Pioneer Hall mural cycle by 1958, with his Working Cattle on the Open Range.

Today over 1,000 Bugbee works, a reconstruction of his studio, and a Bugbee Gallery are part of the Panhandle-Plains art collection.

Pen and Ink on the Southern Plains:Work on Paper by Harold Dow Bugbee

(By Michael Grauer)

Bugbee’s works are fitting tribute to his devotion to the Panhandle-Plains region of Texas and the greater Southwest. Bugbee’s work can be found at in the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum; the Amon Carter Museum; Cattleman’s Museum, Fort Worth; American Quarter Horse Heritage Center and Museum; Museum of the Southwest, Midland, Texas; the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, Oklahoma City; the National Ranching Heritage Center, Lubbock; and the J. Evetts Haley History Center, Midland, Texas.

An Overview of Bugbee’s Efforts on Paper

Known primarily for his pen and ink and ink drybrush drawings used to illustrate pulp magazines, Bugbee skills as a draftsman are widely praised. In fact, Jeff Dykes included him in his seminal biographical dictionary, Fifty Great Western Illustrators, based almost exclusively on Bugbee’s skill with ink.

However, he was equally skilled in graphite and charcoal, as well as lithographic crayon on pebbled paper. Bugbee also showed great control and spontaneity in watercolor, using either washes or brushstrokes to master this most unforgiving of media. Unknown to most are Bugbee’s works in colored pencil. Unsatisfied with colored pencils as color fillers, he showed immense verve in his pencil strokes allowing the medium to flow and express, almost like a liquid medium. Moreover, Bugbee experimented successfully in color oil pastels, using them much as he had colored pencil.

Yet, what truly sets Bugbee apart from his peers were his illustrated letters, his own “Panhandle Paper Talk.”

Bugbee’s idol, Charles M. Russell (1864-1926) called his illustrated letters, verses, Christmas cards, and other personalia, “paper talk.” A prolific correspondent, Russell’s illustrated written materials are highly prized by both public and private collections alike.

Throughout his career Bugbee turned to Russell and Frederic Remington (1861-1909), masters of the American West, for inspiration. Copying old master paintings has been standard practice in academic art training throughout history. Likewise, “borrowing” compositions or even parts of an old master’s work, has been encouraged since at least the 18th century. To refer to an old master in your own work

helped make it more intellectually stimulating and displayed your own knowledge of art history. This is not to suggest that Bugbee copied his compositions from Frederic Remington and/or Charlie Russell. Rather, in pursuing a similar subject, Bugbee, as all artists have done throughout history, and like many illustrators constantly searching for ideas, looked to the recognized masters of a certain genre for ideas and possible solutions to problems.

In his library, Bugbee had more books about, by, or illustrated by Russell and Remington than any other artists. He also collected reproductions of their paintings and had three Russell bronzes in his studio. Bugbee probably first saw Remington’s paintings reproduced in Collier’s Weekly. From 1903 to 1907, Remington was under contract to Collier’s to create one painting per month for reproduction in the magazine. Sadly, in 1907 Remington burned at least 75 of his paintings including many done under the Collier’s contract. The Snook Art Company of Billings, Montana, sold numerous Russell reproductions. In fact, in many ways, Russell’s commitment to depicting Western life on the Northern Plains, Bugbee paralleled on the Southern Plains some 25 years later.

To be sure, Bugbee was hardly the only Western artist to illustrate his letters. Will James (1892-1942), Joe De Yong (1894-1975), Edward Borein (1872-1945), W. Herbert Dunton, Philip R. Goodwin (1881-1935), and Olaf Carl Seltzer (1877-1957) are just a few. Most, including Bugbee, shared Russell’s sense of humor and often depicted themselves in difficult circumstances, such as being pitched off a horse into prickly pear or Western characters in a tussle with “city slickers.”

Bugbee began adding small drawings in the margins of his letters (he, too, was a prolific letter writer, in which he was encouraged by his parents) and in his school notebooks as a child. By the early 1920s, as seen in this treasure trove offered by William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, he had become quite skilled at adding pen and ink illustrations to his letterheads. (Later he began to create exquisite small watercolor compositions, but these are quite rare.) Nearly always autobiographical, these “little gems” allow the viewer to see into the heart and soul of this very quiet, gentle man. Self-portraits are frequent additions to his letters as he is difficult to miss with his omnipresent pipe.

Others are sketches of oil paintings he finished, acting as records to be shared before today’s instant messaging and cell phone cameras. Among these oil painting sketches are New Mexican Hunter (Private Collection), at least two sketch references to the bronco buster in his Rope Corral (PPHM), a sketch of mounted Indian warrior inscribed “from a small painting of a Sioux Indian on a white horse” which corresponds to an oil on canvas board in the PPHM collection, and another to a mother grizzly and cubs in an aspen scene which also corresponds to an oil on the PPHM collection..

His travels to Taos are recorded with his Indian flute player near Taos Pueblo (an homage to Bert Geer Phillips) and his portrait of “Buck” Dunton. Dunton likely influenced Bugbee’s interest in bears, and they appear with some frequency in the Reaves | Foltz offering. In fact, one of the bear images is a sketch of a small plaster sculpture of a mother bear and cubs which today stands in the Bugbee Studio exhibit at PPHM.

Children (including a self-portrait “When ‘B’ was very young”), animals, and pets appear frequently. Even the mounted head of a buffalo that hung over the stairway in the 1913 Bugbee house northwest of Clarendon makes an appearance. This mount now displayed at the Saints Roost Museum in Clarendon.

All in all, H. D. Bugbee’s works on paper, especially his work in ink, are his best recognized. Fortunately, Reaves | Foltz offers greater depth and breadth to this incredibly talented artist than ever before seen. This exhibition moseying along behind their 2010 offering of primarily Bugbee oils, provides a far more extensive look at one of Texas and the Southwest’s most important artists than has been seen since the 2000 H. D. Bugbee: 100 at 100 exhibition at Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum.

Michael R. GrauerAssociate Director for Curatorial Affairs/Curator of Art and Western HeritagePanhandle-Plains Historical MuseumInstructor, West Texas A&M UniversityCanyon, Texas 9 February 2016

CANYON - For Harold Bugbee, life held three great loves.

First was cowboy life in the Texas Panhandle. When his dad got sick in 1918, the teenager dropped out of Texas A&M University to run the family ranch near Clarendon and in the 1920s drove a herd of steers to Kansas City for a neighboring ranch. He worked for Charles Goodnight and remained close friends with the legendary rancher until Goodnight’s death in 1929.

Second, he loved painting. Whether sitting in the saddle or atop a corral fence, he was invariably sketching on Levi’s jeans labels or envelopes or invoices. By the early 1930s, the sketches had evolved into accomplished oil paintings and ink drawings in the Western tradition of Buck Dunton, Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell. Houston gallery owner Bill Reaves calls him “the earliest indigenous Texas cowboy artist.”

Third, he loved Dorothy Carroll, the pride of Gainesville and the prettiest girl in Cooke County.

Bugbee found fulfillment in the pursuit of his first two loves, but Dorothy - well, that’s another story.

Scion of an old New England family, Thomas Sherman Bugbee ventured to Texas in 1864 and in 1883 founded one of the first Panhandle ranches. Enthused about the possibility of making a lot of money in the cattle business, he persuaded his cousin, Charles Herbert Bugbee, to abandon his career as a Boston musician and build a new life in the Lone Star State.

Charles Bugbee arrived in 1914, purchased cattle and 1,000 acres outside Clarendon, and built a two-story, prairie-style home for his wife Grace and their 14-year-old son, Harold Dow Bugbee. The youngster played football at Clarendon

High, illustrated the school yearbook and painted. In 1919, he traveled to Taos, where he studied with Dunton and other artists. He also studied at the Cumming School of Art in Des Moines, Iowa. After two years, Charles A. Cumming told the young man he had nothing else to teach him. Go home and paint what you love, the teacher advised.

Back home in Clarendon, Bugbee cowboyed part-time while capturing the ranching world in oils and charcoal. Michael Grauer, curator at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in this college town south of Amarillo and the author of a forthcoming Bugbee biography, points out that Bugbee kept getting better and better throughout the ‘20s. By the early 1930s, he was established as a Western painter of note, with galleries in Chicago, Denver, Kansas City and New York exhibiting his work. “He really was the Charlie Russell of Texas,” Grauer says.

At some point, presumably after he got back to Texas in 1922, Bugbee fell in love with Dorothy, a beautiful and engaging young woman five years his junior. They couldn’t see each other often, since Gainesville and Clarendon are 250 miles apart, so they took the train occasionally, and they wrote almost daily.

Harold’s handwritten letters to Dorothy still exist. What makes them interesting, beyond their value to family members and art historians, is that they’re illustrated. In pen and ink at the top of the page or in the margins, Bugbee sketched whimsical little images of a horse, a cow, a buffalo, maybe a cowboy on horseback or lounging around the bunkhouse. Often the drawings illustrate something he mentions in the letter, leading gallery owner Reaves to believe that he probably wrote first and sketched afterward.

Scraps from the life of a cowboy who painted in the saddle

B y J o e H o l l e y

Forbidden love

They must have made a striking couple, Harold and Dorothy, the handsome, young cowboy artist in his early 20s, the dark-haired young woman perhaps still a teenager when the two fell in love. You can imagine her waiting anxiously at the Gainesville depot as the train carrying her beau pulls in from out west. You can see them strolling along a downtown street arm in arm. They’re talking, laughing, making plans for a life together.

Ah, but it was not to be. Harold and Dorothy, you see, were cousins. First cousins. When Dorothy’s parents realized what was happening, they whisked her out of state and enrolled her in school in Boston. Although the former lovers would see each other at family gatherings in years to come, all that was left between them were dreams, perhaps unspoken, of what might have been.

Bugbee continued to paint. He exhibited at various Texas centennial exhibitions around the state in 1936, completed a number of mural projects in the Panhandle and West Texas, and did pen-and-ink illustrations for books by Texas historian J. Evetts Haley. In 1951, he became the first curator of art at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum.

In 1935, Bugbee married Katherine Patrick, also a cousin, though distant. Some years after the marriage ended in divorce, he married a Hill Country artist (not a cousin). He died in Clarendon in 1963.

A slice of history

Dorothy came back home to Gainesville and married, although, as her nephew Steve Carroll recalls, the marriage was not a happy one; it also ended in divorce. Carroll, a retired civil engineer with Humble Oil and Refining, grew up in Gainesville, around the corner from Dorothy’s parents (his grandparents).

“She was a wonderful person,” he recalled. “I remember her kindness and sense of pleasure at seeing me. I have vivid memories of her.”

Carroll, 79, remembers Bugbee as “friendly, but very distant, more formal. ‘Nice to meet you, young man’ - that sort of thing.”

Dorothy Carroll died in 1945 at age 40 of a cerebral hemorrhage. That’s when family members discovered the letters. Steve Carroll speculates that either Dorothy’s mother or his own father read them and decided they were inappropriate.”They weren’t risqué or anything like that,” Steve says, “but maybe they thought they were suggestive.”

However suggestive, they were valuable because of the drawings, the family member realized. The solution was to take scissors and cut the letters into strips, taking care to preserve the images. Snippets of the writing are still legible - that’s how Steve Carroll knows the couple took the train - but you can’t read the complete letters.

‘Fill in the blanks’

Carroll inherited the letters, approximately 80 individual pieces, when his father died in 1993. He came across them again recently in the midst of downsizing for a move from Baytown to Houston. He thought about donating them to Panhandle-Plains, but Reaves reminded him that “they won’t get a lot of air time” in a museum that already holds more than a thousand Bugbee works. The letters go on display at Reaves’ gallery next week.

“Just seeing a part of what’s being written makes it even more interesting,” Reaves says. “You fill in the blanks with your own thoughts.”

Holley, Joe. "Scraps from the Life of a Cowboy Who Painted in the Saddle." Houston Chronicle. 26 Feb. 2016. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.

• S c r a p s f r o m t h e l i f e o f a C o w b o y W h o P a i n t e d i n t h e S a d d l e •B y J o e H o l l e y

• D e a r e s t D o t : I l l u s t r a t e d L e t t e r s B y H a r o l d B u g b e e •

1 A Cowboy Artist c. 1925 ink 4.75 x 3.5 inches.

2 Adobe c. 1925 ink 2.5 x 7.675 inches.

3 Alone on the Range c. 1925 ink 3 x 7.125 inches.

4 Apache Doll c. 1925 ink 3.5 x 3.25 inches.

5 Apache Playing Flute c. 1925 ink 3.625 x 7.125 inches.

6 Apache c. 1925 ink 4.5 x 6.875 inches.

7 Artist Looking Down c. 1925 ink 3.5 x 7.125 inches.

8 Bear and Cub in the Woods c. 1925 ink 3.5 x 7.5 inches.

9 Black Bear Confrontation c. 1925 ink 4.5 x 7.125 inches.

10 Black Bear Standing c. 1925 ink 4.125 x 7.25 inches.

11 Buck Dunton c. 1925 ink 5.125 x 7.125 inches.

12 Bucked Off c. 1925 ink 3.375 x 7.125 inches.

13 Bucking Bronco c. 1925 ink 3.5 x 7.125 inches.

14 Buffalo Head c. 1925 ink 3.25 x 8 inches.

15 Bugbee Profile in Silhouette c. 1925 ink 3.5 x 7.125 inches.

16 Calf c. 1925 ink 3.5 x 7.125 inches.

17 Calf Roping c. 1925 ink 3.625 x 7.125 inches.

18 Candido c. 1925 ink 4.5 x 7.125 inches.

19 Caught in the Circle c. 1925 ink 5.125 x 7 inches.

20 Chief on Horseback c. 1925 ink 3.125 x 3.375 inches.

21 Cheif Waving c. 1925 ink 3.625 x 3.75 inches.

22 Cowboy and Horse c. 1925 ink 3.75 x 8 inches.

23 Cowboy Ropin c. 1925 ink 3.5 x 7.125 inches.

24 Cowboy with Horse Kicking c. 1925 ink 4 x 7.25 inches.

No. Title of Work Date Medium Size (inches)


25 Dave Kelby - Cutting Out c. 1925 ink 3.5 x 7.125 inches.

26 Dot and Harold Riding c. 1925 ink 3.125 x 7.125 inches.

27 Dot in Silhouette c. 1925 ink 3.5 x 7.125 inches.

28 Double Sided - Indian Seated Before A Skull c. 1925 ink 3.875 x 7.125 inches.

29 Downhill c. 1925 ink 3.625 x 7.25 inches.

30 English Riders c. 1925 ink 4.275 x 7.125 inches.

31 Family of Buffalo 1926 ink 2.125 x 7.125 inches.

32 Headed Downhill c. 1925 ink 3.75 x 7.125 inches.

33 Herd of Buffalos c. 1925 ink 3.125 x 7.875 inches.

34 Knock Him Out c. 1925 ink 4.25 x 7.25 inches.

35 Leading the Herd c. 1925 ink 3.75 x 7.25 inches.

36 Little Apache Boy c. 1925 ink 4.5 x 6.875 inches.

37 Little Girl with Bear c. 1925 ink 3.625 x 2.5 inches.

38 Lone Rider c. 1925 ink 3 x 7.125 inches.

39 Man’s Best Friend with Boots c. 1925 ink 3.625 x 7.125 inches.

40 ‘Member Him c. 1925 ink 3.5 x 7.125

41 Mexican Sheep-herder - Chama, NM c. 1925 ink 3.625 x 7.125 inches.

42 Mounted Cowboy c. 1925 ink 3.75 x 7.125 inches.

43 Off He Went c. 1925 ink 3.5 x 7.125 inches.

44 Out For A Ride c. 1925 ink 3 x 7.125 inches.

45 Profile of Ute Indian c. 1925 ink 3.625 x 6.875 inches.

46 Profile Sketch c. 1925 ink 3.75 x 6.875 inches.

47 Quanah Parker c. 1925 ink 3.125 x 3.25 inches.

48 Quiet Ride c. 1925 ink 3.625 x 7.125 inches.



49 Resting Rider and Horse c. 1925 ink 3.125 x 7.125 inches.

50 Riding with Dot c. 1925 ink 3.375 x 7.125 inches.

51 Rough Ride c. 1925 ink 3.5 x 7.125 inches.

52 Sar Our Big Cat c. 1925 ink 3.825 x 7.25 inches.

53 Seated Self Portrait c. 1925 ink 3.5 x 7.125 inches.

54 Self Portrait c. 1925 ink 3.25 x 7.125 inches.

55 Self Portrait with Pipe c. 1925 ink 3.625 x 7.125 inches.

56 Shorty Brandover c. 1925 ink 3.75 x 4 inches.

57 Shrub c. 1925 ink 3.5 x 7.125 inches.

58 Silhouette of Artist at Easel c. 1925 ink 5 x 7.125 inches.

59 Silhouette of Chief on Horseback c. 1925 ink 4.25 x 3.625 inches.

60 Silhouette of Dot and Harold Riding c. 1925 ink 3.125 x 7.125 inches.

61 Sketch of Apache c. 1925 ink 4.875 x 4.125 inches.

62 Sketch of Bear and Cub c. 1925 ink 2.875 x 7.125 inches.

63 Sketch of Bear and Cub Under Tree c. 1925 ink 4 x 6.875 inches.

64 Sketch of Bucking Bronco c. 1925 ink 5 x 7.25 inches.

65 Sketch of Rough Ride c. 1925 ink 3.625 x 7.125 inches.

66 Sketch of Self Portrait c. 1925 ink 3.5 x 7.125 inches.

67 Sketch of Sioux on A White Horse c. 1925 ink 3.5 x 6.875 inches.

68 Solitude c. 1925 ink 3.375 x 7.125 inches.

69 The Mouse... c. 1925 ink 3.8.25 x 7.125 inches.

70 Time to Lasso c. 1925 ink 5.875 x 2.875 inches.

71 Ute Indian c. 1925 ink 3.875 x 7.875 inches.

72 When B Was Very Young c. 1925 ink 5.875 x 3.625 inches.


1. A Cowboy Artist, c. 1925, ink, 4.75 x 3.5 inches.


2. Adobe, c. 1925, ink, 2.5 x 7.675 inches.


3. Alone on the Range, c. 1925, ink, 3 x 7.125 inches.


4. Apache Doll, c. 1925, ink, 3.5 x 3.25 inches.


5. Apache Playing Flute, c. 1925, ink, 3.625 x 7.125 inches.


6. Apache, c. 1925, ink, 4.5 x 6.875 inches.


7. Artist Looking Down, c. 1925, ink, 3.5 x 7.125 inches.


8. Bear and Cub in the Woods, c. 1925, ink, 3.5 x 7.5 inches.


9. Black Bear Confrontation, c. 1925, ink, 4.5 x 7.125 inches.


10. Black Bear Standing, c. 1925, ink, 4.125 x 7.25 inches.


11. Buck Dunton, c. 1925, ink, 5.125 x 7.125 inches.


12. Bucked Off, c. 1925, ink, 3.375 x 7.125 inches.


13. Bucking Bronco, c. 1925, ink, 3.5 x 7.125 inches.


14. Buffalo Head, c. 1925, ink, 3.25 x 8 inches.


15. Bugbee Profile in Silhouette, c. 1925, ink, 3.5 x 7.125 inches.


16. Calf, c. 1925, ink, 3.5 x 7.125 inches.


17. Calf Roping, c. 1925, ink, 3.625 x 7.125 inches.


18. Candido, c. 1925, ink, 4.5 x 7.125 inches.


19. Caught in the Circle, c. 1925, ink, 5.125 x 7 inches.


20. Chief on Horseback, c. 1925, ink, 3.125 x 3.375 inches.


21. Cheif Waving, c. 1925, ink, 3.625 x 3.75 inches.


22. Cowboy and Horse, c. 1925, ink, 3.75 x 8 inches.


23. Cowboy Ropin, c. 1925, ink, 3.5 x 7.125 inches.


24. Cowboy with Horse Kicking, c. 1925, ink, 4 x 7.25 inches.


25. Dave Kelby - Cutting Out, c. 1925, ink, 3.5 x 7.125 inches.


26. Dot and Harold Riding, c. 1925, ink, 3.125 x 7.125 inches.


27. Dot in Silhouette, c. 1925, ink, 3.5 x 7.125 inches.


28. Double Sided - Indian Seated Before A Skull, c. 1925, ink, 3.875 x 7.125 inches.


29. Downhill, c. 1925, ink, 3.625 x 7.25 inches.


30. English Riders, c. 1925, ink, 4.275 x 7.125 inches.


31. Family of Buffalo, 1926, ink, 2.125 x 7.125 inches.


32. Headed Downhill, c. 1925, ink, 3.75 x 7.125 inches.


33. Herd of Buffalos, c. 1925, ink, 3.125 x 7.875 inches.


34. Knock Him Out, c. 1925, ink, 4.25 x 7.25 inches.


35. Leading the Herd, c. 1925, ink, 3.75 x 7.25 inches.


36. Little Apache Boy, c. 1925, ink, 4.5 x 6.875 inches.


37. Little Girl with Bear, c. 1925, ink, 3.625 x 2.5 inches.


38. Lone Rider, c. 1925, ink, 3 x 7.125 inches.


39. Man’s Best Friend with Boots, c. 1925, ink, 3.625 x 7.125 inches.


40. ‘Member Him, c. 1925, ink, 3.5 x 7.125


41. Mexican Sheep-herder - Chama, NM, c. 1925, ink, 3.625 x 7.125 inches.


42. Mounted Cowboy, c. 1925, ink, 3.75 x 7.125 inches.


43. Off He Went, c. 1925, ink, 3.5 x 7.125 inches.


44. Out For A Ride, c. 1925, ink, 3 x 7.125 inches.


45. Profile of Ute Indian, c. 1925, ink, 3.625 x 6.875 inches.


46. Profile Sketch, c. 1925, ink, 3.75 x 6.875 inches.


47. Quanah Parker, c. 1925, ink, 3.125 x 3.25 inches.


48. Quiet Ride, c. 1925, ink, 3.625 x 7.125 inches.


49. Resting Rider and Horse, c. 1925, ink, 3.125 x 7.125 inches.


50. Riding with Dot, c. 1925, ink, 3.375 x 7.125 inches.


51. Rough Ride, c. 1925, ink, 3.5 x 7.125 inches.


52. Sar Our Big Cat, c. 1925, ink, 3.825 x 7.25 inches.


53. Seated Self Portrait, c. 1925, ink, 3.5 x 7.125 inches.


54. Self Portrait, c. 1925, ink, 3.25 x 7.125 inches.


55. Self Portrait with Pipe, c. 1925, ink, 3.625 x 7.125 inches.


56. Shorty Brandover, c. 1925, ink, 3.75 x 4 inches.


57. Shrub, c. 1925, ink, 3.5 x 7.125 inches.


58. Silhouette of Artist at Easel, c. 1925, ink, 5 x 7.125 inches.


59. Silhouette of Chief on Horseback, c. 1925, ink, 4.25 x 3.625 inches.


60. Silhouette of Dot and Harold Riding, c. 1925, ink, 3.125 x 7.125 inches.


61. Sketch of Apache, c. 1925, ink, 4.875 x 4.125 inches.


62. Sketch of Bear and Cub, c. 1925, ink, 2.875 x 7.125 inches.


63. Sketch of Bear and Cub Under Tree, c. 1925, ink, 4 x 6.875 inches.


64. Sketch of Bucking Bronco, c. 1925, ink, 5 x 7.25 inches.


65. Sketch of Rough Ride, c. 1925, ink, 3.625 x 7.125 inches.


66. Sketch of Self Portrait, c. 1925, ink, 3.5 x 7.125 inches.


67. Sketch of Sioux on A White Horse, c. 1925, ink, 3.5 x 6.875 inches.


68. Solitude, c. 1925, ink, 3.375 x 7.125 inches.


69. The Mouse..., c. 1925, ink, 3.8.25 x 7.125 inches.


70. Time to Lasso, c. 1925, ink, 5.875 x 2.875 inches.


71. Ute Indian, c. 1925, ink, 3.875 x 7.875 inches.


72. When B Was Very Young, c. 1925, ink, 5.875 x 3.625 inches.


Selected Biographical and Career Highlights• 1900, Born in Lexington, Massachusetts• 1912, Moves to ranch near Clarendon,

Texas• 1917, Attends Clarendon College, Texas• 1918, Attends Texas A&M College,

College Station, Texas• 1921, Graduates from Charles

Cummings School of Art, Des Moines, Iowa

• 1929-1962, Illustrates several covers of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Review

• 1951, Part-time curator, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon

• 1963, Dies in Clarendon, Texas

Selected Exhibitions • 1936, Fort Worth Frontier Centennial

Exposition• 1937, Annual Texas Artists Exhibition,

Fort Worth

• Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon

• Hall of State, Fair Park, Dallas• National Museum of American Art,

Washington, D. C. (two of three murals formerly at Amarillo Army Airfield)

Selected Collections

• Texas A&M University, College Station• Smithsonian American Art Museum,

Washington, D.C.• Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth• Cattleman’s Museum, Fort Worth• American Quarter Horse Heritage

Center and Museum, Amarillo• National Cowboy Hall of Fame,

Oklahoma City• J. Evetts Haley History Center, Midland• J. Wayne Stark University Center

Galleries

• 1940, Exhibition of Paintings by Texas Artists, J.W. Young Galleries, Chicago

• 1953, 1961, 1970, 1987, 1994, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon

• 1961, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon




• 1992, Nita Stewart Haley Library, Midland

• 1993, Cattlemen’s Museum, Fort Worth • 1997, Hock Shop Collection:

Rediscovering Texas Artists of the Past, Museum of the Big Bend, Alpine

Selected Murals

• Amarillo Hotel and Herring Hotel, Amarillo

Harold Dow Bugbee (1900-1963)

A native of Lexington, Massachusetts, Bugbee came to Texas in 1912 to live on a ranch near Clarendon. He graduated from Clarendon High School, attended Clarendon College (1917) and Texas A&M College, College Station (1918), then graduated from the Charles Cummings School of Art, Des Moines, Iowa (1921). He also studied in New York City. After returning to Clarendon about 1922, Bugbee painted regularly with members of the Taos art colony in New Mexico.

Known for his portrayals of ranch life, Bugbee was an illustrator of books and magazines and a painter of historical portraits. He illustrated J. Evetts Haley’s Charles Goodnight, Cowman and Plainsman (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1936) and worked with Haley in the production of several other historical works. Bugbee’s Illustrations often appeared on the covers of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Review between 1929 and 1962, in pulp magazines, and in Country Gentleman, Quarter Horse Journal, Progressive Farmer, The Cattleman, and Field and Stream magazines. He taught at the Palo Duro School of Art, Canyon, and in 1951 became part-time curator of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon. Bugbee died in Clarendon, survived by his second wife, Olive Vandruff Bugbee. A re-creation of his studio as it existed at the time of his death is on permanent exhibit at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum.

The important things in Bugee’s professional life were the integrity of his work and his continuous dedication, from boyhood, to painting the people, the animals and the breathtaking places of the Southwest of the period 1850 to about 1920.

About William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art

HOUSTON’S TEXAS-CENTERED GALLERY

William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, originally established in 2006 in Houston, Texas, is dedicated to the promotion of premier Texas artists of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing particularly on historically significant artists

active in the state during the period of 1900‒1975.

The gallery showcases many of the state’s most accomplished and recognized talents, all of whom have significant connections to Texas and have evidenced the highest standards of quality in their work, training, and professionalism. In addition to its general focus on Early Texas Art, the gallery places special emphasis on the rediscovery and presentation

of midcentury works by Houston and South Texas artists. William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art is the foremost provider of Texas Modern Art, which includes midcentury masters and pioneering expressionists working in the state. The gallery also represents a dynamic group of contemporary artists, known as the Contemporary Texas Regionalists, actively showing their

works in annual gallery exhibitions as well as traveling exhibitions throughout the state.

William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art is a comprehensive gallery offering fine art appraisals, consultation, collections management, brokerage, and sales services. The gallery exhibits artists working in a variety of media including painting,

sculpture, works on paper, and photography. In order to promote interest and broaden knowledge of earlier Texas art, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art supports related gallery talks, community events, scholarly research, and publications.

Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-5pm and other times by appointment.

Gallery Contacts:William Reaves, President

[email protected] Foltz, [email protected]

William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art2143 Westheimer Road • Houston, Texas • 77098 • www.reavesart.com

Tel : 713.521.7500 • Contact : [email protected]

dearest dot: an endearing collection of illustrated letters from harold bugbee to his "dearest...

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