Art of the of the American West. Irving R. Bacon. 2015 A-Z Challenge

            The Conquest of the Prairie. Irving R. Bacon. (1875-1962)

.   Dover Publications, Inc.

Indians watch silently as the long lines of covered wagons come through their land. A scout leads the way, a protector of the settlers.  A herd of buffalo between them, whose existence will also disappear, along with the Indians is another symbol.
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"The old Wild West is fast disappearing and the young artists will have it only in history."  Irving R. Bacon.


Irving R. Bacon was born in Fitchberg, Massachusetts in 1862 and received his early art training in the Art School of the Detroit Museum of Art. His early work was illustrations and cartoons reflecting his travels in the American West. his talent was said to have rivaled Remington and Russell.  In 1902 he studied in New York at the Chase School of Art and worked for Harper's Weekly and McClures Magazine. Still trying to learn more, he studied at the Royal Academy in Munich.  Then his focus changed when he returned to Detroit and sold a painting to Henry Ford.  In 1913 he was an employee of the Ford Motor Company painting scenes and portraits of Ford's family and friends, including Noah Webster, Luther Burbank, Mark Twain George Washington Carver, Stephen Foster, Thomas Edison and others. Bacon's interest in photography and motion pictures led him to become head of Ford Motor Company's photographic department.

Bacon bridged two historic time periods.  His early paintings of the Indians of the American West and then his further work with Henry Ford, meeting the movers and the shakers of new inventions and scientific discoveries and the celebrities of the 20th century must have been challenging and never dull. He worked for Ford for 30 years and retired in 1948.  He died in 1962 in Florida at the age of 87.