William Ranney
Forging An American Identity
Buffalo Bill Historical Center
Cody, Wyoming, USA
May 12 - August 14, 2006
Brief life, long lasting legacy, is a simplistic summation of the career of American artist William Ranney, subject of a retrospective
at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody Wyoming.
Title: Advice on the Prairie, 1853
Artist: William Ranney (1813-1857),
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 38.75 x 55.25 inches.
Permanent Collection: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming.
Gift of Mrs. J. Maxwell Moran. 10.91
Image Courtesy: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming
The artist painted in the middle of the 19th Century and his works exude the diversity of his homeland:
revolutionary heroes, family seeking a new life via a Western
trek, the joy of a wedding and the sorrow of a funeral. His life was brief, he died at the age of 44, and yet he was prolific in his craft.
Title: The Lasso, 1846
Artist: William Ranney (1813-1857)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 32 x 42.5 inches.
Permanent Collection: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming.
Gift of Mrs. J. Maxwell Moran. 22.99
Image Courtesy: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming
“Contemplating some of Ranney’s powerful works one might wonder why artist William Ranney is less well-known than some of his contemporaries or other western artists,”
said Dr. Sarah E. Boehme, the John S. Bugas Curator of the Whitney Gallery of Western Art at the BBHC.
“One contributing factor is Ranney’s short lifespan and, consequently, his resulting comparatively smaller oeuvre, or body of work.”
Adding, "Many of Ranney’s western works focus on the unnamed figures of history, thus asserting the importance of the average person in developing the nation and its identity”
Boehme explained. “Ranney’s paintings convey important concepts about American character through his dramatic visualizations.”
“This project includes paintings that rarely travel and
some that are newly re-discovered,” Boehme said.
“We’ve learned so much more about William Ranney which makes this exhibition an unparalleled gathering of the artist’s most significant paintings.
Viewers will be treated to those new insights in a rare showing that, quite frankly, they might never otherwise see.”
Title: First Fish of the Season, 1849.
Artist: William Ranney (1813-1857)
Medium: Oil on Canvas.
Dimensions: 27 x 40 inches.
Private Collection.
Image Courtesy: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming
He was born in Connecticut in 1813 and by his early teenage years he had developed an interest in arts. Ranney went on to study in New York. During the war
for Texas independence he volunteered and that added a new subject to his genre: western scenes. He settled in New Jersey with his wife and this provided ready access
to the New York galleries. William Ranney produced approximately 150 paintings.
Forging an American Identity
includes sixty works from both public and private collection. This is the first comprehensive exhibition of William Ranney's oeuvre in over 40 years.
William Ranney
Forging An American Identity:
Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming:
May 12 - August 14, 2006
Speed Art Museum, Kentucky:
September 29, 2006 - January 1, 2007
Amon Carter Museum, Texas:
February 10 - May 13, 2007
Philadelphia Museum of Art:
June 23 - August 26, 2007
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