Two disparate worlds met in the life of Alexander Phimister Proctor: the art world centered in the eastern United States and the world of the western frontier. Proctor was a remarkable amalgam: a big-game hunter and intrepid explorer who felt at home in Paris or New York, and an academically trained artist who painted and sculpted the characters and wild creatures of the West.
This new edition of Proctor’s autobiography provides a thorough introduction to a distinctively American artist whose monumental sculptures and statues adorn parks, public buildings, and museums, as well as private homes and businesses across the country. The text, begun in the late 1930s, when Proctor was in his seventies, takes the reader on a far-flung journey from his birth in Ontario and childhood in Denver to his travels as a young man throughout the United States and eventually to Paris.
A new selection of more than 125 illustrations—many in full color—includes historical photographs and reproductions of Proctor’s sketches, paintings, and sculptures, tracing the development of his magnificent artistry. Here are the trembling fawns, slinking mountain lions, stalwart warriors, and rearing mustangs that made him famous. Art historian Katharine C. Ebner has annotated the autobiography and restored previously unpublished portions of the original manuscript.
“What is beauty?” Proctor asks at the beginning of his narrative. It was a question that resonated throughout his life. Through the words and the work of this remarkable artist, we come to understand his answer.