WILLIAM T. RANNEY
1813-1857
Image Source: WIKIPEDIABorn in Middletown, Connecticut, William Ranney devoted his career to depicting the West. As a young man, he apprenticed to a tinsmith in Fayetteville, North Carolina, having abandoned his study of art in New York City after the death of his sea-captain father.
To find adventure, he joined in 1836 the Texas army in its fight for independence against Mexico, and this period, very brief, was his only experience on the frontier. It is likely that he met trappers on this venture, as several of his most popular paintings including The Trappers Last Shot, were based on a rowdy rendezvous with trapper Joseph Meek in Yellowstone Park.
WILLIAM T. RANNEY BIOGRAPHY
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Following this period of western adventure, Ranney returned to Brooklyn where he lived, working in and around New York City for the next ten years. In 1853, he moved his family to West Hoboken, New Jersey and built a studio large enough for animals including horses. The walls were decorated with western items such as saddles, guns and swords.
His paintings included portraits and romanticized Revolutionary War history paintings and focused on pioneers, trappers, and scouts, especially Daniel Boone, opening up the frontier. He also did numerous hunting scenes from the New Jersey marshes. He was popular among his fellow artists, and after his death his fellow members of the National Academy had a memorial show to raise funds for his widow.
Source: askART
Oil on canvas
15 ¾ x 24 ¼ inches
SOLD