Frontiersman 1835-1935

Artist Maynard Dixon (1875 - 1946)

Date1935

MediumInk on paper

Dimensions5 1/2 x 3 1/8 in. (14 x 7.9 cm)

ClassificationsDrawing

Credit LineGift of Michael J. Rivard and Carol Susan Rivard

Object number2019.050

DescriptionAs an ill child, Fresno-born Maynard Dixon honed his drawing skills to pass the time. Dixon and his family moved to Alameda in 1893, which was also the year his first illustration was published. He was fascinated with the Old West and the American Southwest, and cowboys, Native Americans and “the last frontier” were the subjects of most of his best-known works. He was a colorful character who often dressed like a cowboy, sporting a black Stetson and boots. In 1920, he met and married Dorothea Lange, the famed documentary photographer and photojournalist, whose style and choice of subject matter – rural and urban poverty – greatly influenced Dixon’s art toward social realism. (He and Lange divorced in 1935.) Dixon’s paintings often appeared on the cover and inside such magazines as the Automobile Club of Southern California’s Touring Topics (later Westways magazine), for which he created all 12 covers in 1930. He sent these ink drawings to Millier as holiday cards in 1923 and 1935.

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