{"id":209292,"date":"2024-03-01T14:06:10","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T14:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/01\/to-depict-the-frontier-era-with-authenticity-this-artist-walks-in-the-footsteps-of-mountain-men\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:21:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:21:24","slug":"to-depict-the-frontier-era-with-authenticity-this-artist-walks-in-the-footsteps-of-mountain-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/01\/to-depict-the-frontier-era-with-authenticity-this-artist-walks-in-the-footsteps-of-mountain-men\/","title":{"rendered":"To Depict the Frontier Era with Authenticity, This Artist Walks in the Footsteps of Mountain Men"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A\u00a0historian with a brush and a palette, David Wright considers it his mission to depict America\u2019s frontier era with precision. \u201cWe historical artists march to a different drummer,\u201d explains Wright [davidwrightart.com<\/a>] from his home studio in Gallatin, Tenn. \u201cWe tell a story. It\u2019s our obligation to future generations to paint our subjects with as much accuracy as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"David
David Wright<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wright\u2019s insistence on authenticity has found him riding Wyoming\u2019s Wind River Range on horseback and hunting moose on Canada\u2019s Aulneau Peninsula dressed in brain-tanned buckskins and bearing a frontiersman\u2019s guns and accoutrements. \u201cSuch experiences enable me to see things from a much closer perspective than if I were just using past masters like Alfred Jacob Miller, George Catlin and Karl Bodmer as references,\u201d he explains. \u201cLandscapes, rifles, bead and quillwork or Indian tattoos\u2014I want it all to be historically dead-on.\u201d His quest draws him to museums and archives, while his home reference library is also extensive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe clich\u00e9 \u2018The more I learn, the less I know\u2019 really is true,\u201d he says. \u201cAs long as I am a student of history, I\u2019ll never quit learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosine, Ken.\u2014the birthplace of Bill Monroe, the \u201cFather of Bluegrass\u201d\u2014was a country hamlet when Wright was born there in 1942. Idyllic remembrances of flint ridges, cornfields and tobacco rows flood his memories. \u201cMy first interests were hunting and fishing and have been all my life.\u201d Always he drew, aided by his mother\u2019s creativity.<\/p>\n

\u201cMom would lay a sheet of paper on her lap and draw,\u201d Wright recalls, then she would take his hand and trace the sketches. At age 9 he won a local art show. After high school he took classes at a Nashville advertising school, then studied watercolor in Italy. The latter move, ironically, kindled his interest in the frontier when he spied a 1777 French musket for sale, bought it and fired it, the flintlock\u2019s smoke and flash awakening latent nostalgia.<\/p>\n

By 1962 Wright was back Stateside, drawing for the Nashville Banner<\/em> and Nashville Tennessean<\/em> until drafted into service in Vietnam. In 1964 and \u201965 he flew more than 100 missions as the door gunner on Bell UH-1 Iroquois (aka \u201cHuey\u201d) helicopters<\/a>. While in-country he sketched everyone from schoolchildren to Montagnard highlanders and soldiers\u2014though never combat scenes. \u201cLife changes your outlook on things,\u201d the artist says.<\/p>\n

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\u2018Rocky Top Overlook\u2019 by David Wright
\n (Courtesy David Wright, davidwrightart.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On returning home, Wright resumed commercial artwork while freelancing on the side. He experienced another awakening when he joined the rugged fraternity of the American Mountain Men, further sparking his interest in the fur trade as he dressed the part and learned frontier skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cUtilizing the day\u2019s firearms and tools gives me an edge in seeing what the lives of our frontier forebears were like,\u201d he explains. \u201cI know what it\u2019s like to build a cabin, split rails, hunt with a flintlock and be freezing in buckskins. I know how wool feels in a snowstorm and how wet leather clings to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2018A Well Deserved Repose\u2019 by David Wright
\n (Courtesy David Wright, davidwrightart.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wright\u2019s first mountain man portrait, for Gray Stone Press, sold out. Encouraged, he shifted his focus to portrayals of heroic frontier figures. By 1978 he was following his own muses and garnering national acclaim.<\/p>\n

The Eiteljorg Museum, in Indianapolis, has devoted an expansive retrospective to Wright\u2019s work and recognized him with several awards. The Booth Western Art Museum, in Cartersville, Ga., named him an artist of excellence. His art also hangs in Nashville\u2019s Tennessee State Museum and the visitor center of Kentucky\u2019s Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. The Hamilton Collection commissioned Wright to render a series of four collector plates depicting American Indian women. \u201cIt is pleasing to be accepted in such a widespread market,\u201d says the artist.<\/p>\n

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\u2018Taos Trapper\u2019s Wife\u2019 by David Wright
\n (Courtesy David Wright, davidwrightart.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Still, every season finds Wright in the woods, sometimes alone, sometimes with kindred spirits, reliving some footnote of frontier history to preserve in photos, sketches and mental images to inform his paintings. \u201cEvery day is a blessing,\u201d says the artist turned mountain man. \u201cMake the most of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2024 issue of <\/em>Wild West magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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