American, 1875-1946

Maynard Dixon was an American painter, muralist and illustrator who was born on a ranch near Fresno, California. Frail health restricted his childhood amusements to sketching trips with his pony, reading and listening to the local old-timers’ tales of the early West. By the time he was sixteen, he had sufficient confidence in his work to send his sketchbook to Frederic Remington, his illustrator hero, who replied with two encouraging letters. At eighteen, spurred on by the encouragement and advice of Remington, he enrolled in the San Francisco School of Design and enjoyed a career as a successful illustrator before turning to painting full-time. Through a lifetime of extensive trips through the West and the insights they produced, he evolved a mastery of his material and a highly distinctive style— the architectural structuring of bold masses combined with dynamic composition and vibrant coloring.

Selected Collections:

Buffalo Bill Center of the West

De Young Museum

Metropolitan Museum of Art

National Museum of American Art – Smithsonian

Utah Museum of Fine Arts