Aaron Bastian
Director
Lot 28
Oscar Edmund Berninghaus(1874-1952)The Roundup 30 1/2 x 40 1/4 in. framed 39 x 49 in.
1 November 2022, 10:00 PDT
Los AngelesSold for US$107,475 inc. premium
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Oscar Edmund Berninghaus (1874-1952)
The Roundup
signed 'O.E. Berninghaus' (lower right)
oil on canvas
30 1/2 x 40 1/4 in.
framed 39 x 49 in.
signed 'O.E. Berninghaus' (lower right)
oil on canvas
30 1/2 x 40 1/4 in.
framed 39 x 49 in.
Footnotes
Provenance
Biltmore Galleries, Scottsdale, Arizona.
William C. Foxley, Denver, Colorado.
Private collection, Scottsdale, Arizona.
Private collection, New Mexico.
Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1998.
Exhibited
Houston, Texas, The Museum of Art of the American West, Masterworks of the Taos Founders, September 10 - November 25, 1984 [also travelled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, Gerald Peters Gallery].
Literature
Frontier Spirit, The Museum of Western Art, Denver, Colorado, 1983, p. 162, illustrated.
Margaret Morris, Masterworks of the Taos Founders, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1984, pl. 13, p. 33, illustrated.
Arguably known best for depictions of the Pueblo peoples of Northern New Mexico, Oscar Edmund Berninghaus also explored the cowboy subject in his work. The Roundup features a central foreground cowboy on horseback walking through a cacti-strewn elevated foreground, while overlooking a vast cattle herd that extends deep into the distant Western landscape. Fellow mounted cowboys keep watch flanking the left and ride sides of the mass of animals. Berninghaus paints the scene in a sophisticated contrast of foreground shadow and sunlit middle ground and sky. The mustachioed foreman, possibly a Vaquero, and the horse tack, are executed in fine and accurate detail while the further recesses of the composition are rendered in looser and more painterly style.