?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
FREDERICK STANTON PERKINS William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody with a White Horse.
Oil on paper mounted on canvas, circa 1895. 555x710 mm; 22x28 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
Ex-collection private collection, New York.
Perkins (1832-1899) was raised in Wisconsin and spent the majority of his career there. He studied in New York with members of the Hudson River School, including Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900), George Inness (1825-1894) and Frederic Church (1826-1900), and later established a portrait studio in Milwaukee where he painted prominent Wisconsin society members.
This portrait depicts Buffalo Bill (1846-1917), who for many was the embodiment of the Wild West. Born as William F. Cody in Iowa Territory in 1846, he served in the Army and hunted buffalo to feed crews of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. The persona of 'Buffalo Bill' was created in dime novels by the author Ned Buntline; Cody then played his alter ego on stage, which was the beginning of his career as a showman. The pinnacle of his career was the creation of Buffalo Bill's Wild West, an outdoor, circus-like performance with scenes that cemented the concept of the Wild West for its viewers. Portraits of Buffalo Bill, like the current work, were an important tool in promoting his touring venture and the mythos of the American west.
