Western illustrator featured women when that was out of the ordinary
October 17, 2024
Western illustrator featured women when that was out of the ordinary
A Museum Minute
By Olivia Weitz
Wyoming Public Media
October 17, 2024
A 1-minute audio snapshot highlighting a museum object from the collection of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.
W.H.D. Koerner was one of the most prolific artist illustrators in the early 20th century.
While his career spanned many subjects, he produced hundreds of drawings and paintings of Western scenes.
Whitney Western Art Museum Curator Assistant Ashlea Espinal said the museum has more than 40 of his works.
“The majority of them, I would say, feature women, and that wasn’t commonplace amongst his contemporaries. It wasn’t very commonplace amongst the artists of the generation previously, like [Frederic] Remington and [Charles] Russell,” she said.
Three of Koerner’s paintings that illustrated the 1926 novel The Painted Stallion by Hal G. Evarts feature one of the main characters: Millie Powers.
“Those three paintings are really just a prime example of how Koerner really pulled out the female characters in the stories that he was illustrating and really made them active characters within it,” Espinal said.
More than 900 artifacts from Koerner’s artist studio are also part of the Whitney’s collection. His Stetson hat and paint palette are currently on display.
Written By
Olivia Weitz
Olivia Weitz is a Multimedia Journalist for Wyoming Public Radio. She works out of a recording studio inside the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody. She covers Yellowstone National Park, wildlife, and arts and culture throughout the region. She produces the “Museum Minute” series, which features objects from the Center of the West’s collections.
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