Art, Oil On Canvas, Western Genre, Cowboy On Horseback Observing a Pierce-Arrow Motorcar, Arion Putnam, Monumental, Antique, 1377

An absolutely exquisite – and enormous – piece of collectible cowboy art, with an interesting origin story.

This painting was originally commissioned by the Pierce-Arrow Automotive company, Los Angeles, and features one of the company's roadsters racing through the Western landscape, likely a Model 66 (in production from 1910 to 1918), while being observed by a mounted cowboy. The initial commission featured the brand 'PA' on the horse's right flank. After the painting was gifted to a friend who owned Reynolds Buick GMC, the brand was modified from 'P' to 'B' accordingly. It has remained in the same family until the present day.

Artist Bio

Arion Putnam was raised in New York but spent his adult life, starting in 1888 at age 18, in Southern California. He worked as an early commercial photographer as the medium developed in Los Angeles and was a painter as well. Through studio work, landscape photography, and painting, he contributed to the visual documentation of the American West during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

• Arion Putnam (1870-1949) 
• hallmarks: Arion Putnam 1912
• materials: oil on canvas, gilt wood frame
• measurements: frame: 75" x 63" x 3", site: 72" x 60"
• vintage condition
• heavy craquelure
• light cupping in one corner
• stretcher bar creases along each edge
• old varnish layer with heavy surface grime
• no evidence of restoration
• modification of the P to B is not evident under black light 
• signed and dated lower left: Arion Putnam 1912
• provenance:

  Pierce-Arrow Automotive Company, Los Angeles, CA, commissioned from the above, circa 1912

  Private collection, owner of Reynolds Buick GMC, from the above

  By family descent

• style: Art-1377