Biography from Altermann Galleries and Auctioneers, Santa Fe I:
| Nick Eggenhofer was one of the last members of the generation of western artists who came to maturity in the years following the death of Remington and Russell.
Born in Bavaria, Eggenhofer maintained that his interest in the American West was kindled by exposure to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and the popular literature of the West, which circulated in his native Germany. He immigrated to America in 1913 and within three years enrolled in classes in New York City, where he studied to be a commercial artist and illustrator. He absorbed all he could about he American West and in 1920, sold his first western illustrations to a popular magazine.
Five years later, after building a moderately successful career as an illustrator, Eggenhofer finally got the opportunity to see the region about which he had dreamed since his youth. He loaded camping gear on a Model T Ford and drove overland to Santa Fe, New Mexico. When he finally returned to the East, he built a log cabin in Milford, New Jersey, and decorated it with western memorabilia. He frequently approached a particular assignment by doing careful research in the New York libraries, and he was known to be a stickler for accurate detail as well as a recognized historian on some aspects of western history.
In addition to the lengthy research he often performed for a commission, Eggenhofer made scale models of some of his compositions in order to make them as accurate as possible. This in itself was not new, since artists in the past had made such models, but it reflects the concern that many of these artists had for the ultimate accuracy of their vision. The artist often employed a very broad color range, often placing stich-like strokes of pure color side by side so as to create an animated effect. Eggenhofer’s oft-repeated quotes about then necessity of telling a story in such works also bears a close relationship to Charles M. Russell’s example, and this work follow that approach with very satisfactory results.
Sources include:
The American West: Legendary Artists of the Frontier, Dr. Rick Stewart, Hawthorne Publishing Company, 1986
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Biography from Thomas Nygard Gallery:
| Nick
Eggenhofer was born in Gauting, southern Bavaria, Germany in 1897. He
grew up in Germany, familiar with horses and playing "Cowboys and
Indians" at the same age as children in America, due to a European
craze inspired by Buffalo Bill's continental tours with his Wild West
show. He also saw Western movies and Remington and Russell works
reproduced in German magazines.
He came to New York in 1913
and began four years of night classes at Cooper Union and held a
variety of jobs including an apprenticeship at the American Lithography
Company. Eggenhofer decided to become a Western artist, preparing by
making scale models of wagons, stagecoaches, and other props for his
paintings. His first illustration was sold in 1920 to Western Story
Magazine of Street & Smith, the pulp publishers.
In 1925
Eggenhofer married and traveled out west in a model T. Even then he saw
a ten-horse trader and mail delivered by buckboard. Inspired by his
travels, he began doing illustrations for many Western books and
magazines. In 1961 he wrote and illustrated his own book Wagons, Mules
and Men.
In the early 1960's, Eggenhofer moved to Cody, saying
"The West got hold of me at a very early age and hasn't turned loose
yet." He is in the forefront of those who portray the wagon-train era
of America and has won top prize at the Cowboy Hall of Fame. In 1971 it
was said that he had made more than 30,000 illustrations.
Eggenhofer
was both a member of The Cowboy Artists of America and the National
Academy of Western Art. He died in Cody, Wyoming in 1985 at the age of
88. His works are held by the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and many
important private collections.
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Biography from AskART:
| Born in Gauting, Bavaria, Nick Eggenhofer became a painter of the
romance of the American West with its cowboys and Indians. He has a
reputation for historical accuracy from careful research and also as an
authority about frontier western transportation.
He was first
exposed to the lore of the American West by hearing about Buffalo
Bill's Wild West Show in Germany from older relatives who had seen
performances. American western movies continued to stir the interest.
In
1913, at the age of sixteen, he came to America with his family from
Germany, and three years later he enrolled in night art classes at
Cooper Union in New York, something he did for four years. During the
day he studied lithography at the American Lithography Company, a place
that trained many successful artists.
He established an
illustration studio in New Jersey and made a living as a commercial
artist, illustrating hundreds of western magazines and books between
the 1920s and 1940s. He became a collector of western artifacts
including saddles, guns, and Indian paraphernalia. He also wrote and
illustrated his own book titled "Wagons, Mules, and Men: How the
Frontier Moved West," a detailed, comprehensive volume on pack animals,
wagons, carts and stagecoaches used to transport people on the western
frontier. For the Whitney Gallery of Western Art in Cody, Wyoming, he
made a series of ten scale models of Conestoga Wagons.
In the
1960s, he moved from his home in West Milford, New Jersey and settled
in Cody, Wyoming, the town named for Buffalo Bill Cody, the man who
first aroused his interest in western life.
Source:
Walt Reed, "The Illustrator in America"
Peggy and Harold Samuels, "Encyclopedia of the American West"
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Nick Eggenhofer is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Illustrators
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