Westrn Ptgs F McCarthy

by Frank Storz

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345246764
• ISBN13: 9780345246769
• Release Date: February 1974
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 45 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Charlie Russell of the 20th Century

Writes McCarthy in his introduction to this collection: "I paint to achieve visual impact--trying to redesign...the beauty and character of...the mountains, streams, lakes, deserts, and most of all, the rock. I put into this setting the characters that roamed it: mountain men, free traders, cavalry, cowboys, and Indians...wagon trains and the stagecoaches." If impact is what he was after, he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. With almost every page you turn in this full-color book, you're hit between the eyes by a painting of near-photographic quality that seems to catch action between one breath and the next--two road-agents ambushing a coach as it fords a shallow creek in "The Last Crossing," a Plains war party defying an unseen foe in "The Cry of Vengeance," a Cavalry patrol racing across the desert in "Forward by Twos." There are quieter moments too--an Indian warrior petitioning the spirits in "The Prayer," which owes some debt to the well-known "End of the Trail;" a mud-wagon making its slow way across a sage flat in "Bleak Dawn;" two cowboys and their packhorses in "Packing In." The stark beauty and sheer size of Western landscape is splendidly captured, as are the details of costume and tack, and action and pageantry blend seamlessly; I know of only one other contemporary painter (Olaf Wieghorst) who does horses anywhere near this well. Many of these paintings were originally commissioned as paperback book covers, which accounts for their unique layout, and to get the most out of them you may want to equip yourself with a large, high-quality magnifier. Anyone who loves Western art should have this book on his shelf, right alongside Remington, Russell, and their ilk, as I do.