Calf Roper #3

Arguably the earliest painting by the artist of a cowboy subject. A rider is dismounting in an effort to throw a calf he has roped. The images and action occur across the width of the picture. The painting was originally on the wall of the Blue Front saloon. After the artist achieved fame, the owner cut this and a companion work (Bucking Bronc) from the wall and had them framed and restored by local artist Chet Kerchinski.
Olaf Wieghorst was a young emerging Western artist when he came to Glenwood's Blue Front Bar in the years that followed Pancho Villa's raid on Columbus (1916). Wieghorst became a soldier for Gen. Black Jack Pershing, who chased Villa back into Mexico. Wieghorst settled at the Quarter Circle 2C spread, also known as the Cunningham Ranch, near Alma NM in the early 1920s. There, he worked as a cowboy and captured the flavor of ranch life in his art. Wieghorst befriended Gus V. Allred, proprietor of the Blue Front Bar. Olaf would come in and complain that there was nothing on the walls of the bar. One day he offered to rectify the situation, and Gus agreed. The catch was that Wieghorst would be able to drink beer for free while the work was going on and maybe take a six-pack home when each session was over. (Recollections of Bucky Allred, grandson of Gus and current proprietor of the Blue Front Bar.)

"From a 1922c painting titled: "Calf Roper" - Oil on buard, 47 1/2 x 90 1/4 inches