Southwest Indians As I See Them, Handmade Art Book By Fred Harman (1902-1982)

FRED HARMAN

Publication: Fred Harman Art Museum / Estate of N Harman,ca 1930s & 1940s, N P

The only copy of this handmade art book by Fred Harman (1902-1982). This colorful 11 1/4" x 9" handmade book with original drawings and sketches containing descriptive text in the hand-illustrated pages. There are approximately 47 pencil drawings and 24 wash-colored drawings of various sizes from small corner drawings to colorful spread sheets.

Although best known as creator of the nationally syndicated Red Ryder comic strip, Fred Harman was also a respected painter of the American West, producing oil paintings of cowboys, Native American life, horses, ranch scenes, and western landscapes. Raised in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, Fred grew up around ranch life, dropping out of school after the seventh grade and working as a cowboy in the Four Corners region where he met and befriended members of the Navajo, Ute and Apache tribes. He learned to ride horses, work with cattle, and observe western people and landscapes ... experiences that later became the foundation of his artwork.

Fred Harman was one of the original 1965 members of the Cowboy Artists of America, along with Joe Beeler, Charlie Dye, John Hampton, and George Phippen; and Harman's paintings were included in the first annual exhibition of the Cowboy Artists of America on September 9, 1966, at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.

The Southwest Indians As I See Them appears to be a private, one-of-a-kind handmade volume, intended to eventually be published. Attached to the inside front cover is a hand-written letter written on Fred Harman’s stationary with address and logo for Red Ryder Ranch in Pagosa Springs and his winter address in Albuquerque at top of letterhead and with his business address for Red Ryder Enterprises, Inc. in New York City at bottom of letterhead. Fred’s note about this sketch book is addressed to a “Dear Bob”... perhaps Bob MacLeod (?), a western writer/artist who worked with Fred Harman on Red Ryder and later wrote western novels. Perhaps they intended to collaborate on a title???

The book is in rough shape as the spine is held tightly together with masking tape, the pictorial covers are well used and worn but the interior tells a lot about the artist and the Southwest Indians as he saw them for many years.

Today Fred is remembered as one of the important painters of the 20th-century American West.