John Edward Borein, (1872 to 1945)
Edward Borein was the oldest of five children of the deputy sheriff of San Leandro, a town along one of the California cattle trails.In 1893 Borein started working up and down the California coast as a ranch hand. He became proficient at roping and riding and seemed to have no regrets about this harsh lifestyle.
His first admirers were his cowhand acquaintances that in 1896 strongly encouraged him to submit work to “The Land of Sunshine Magazine”, which published a Borein sketch in August of that year. He followed this up by working as a sketch artist for “Harpers”, “Colliers”, “Sunset” and “Century”.
Again on the recommendation of friends Borein moved to New York City in 1907 where he lived and worked for twelve years. Being a self-taught artist, this is where he studied most diligently but perhaps the most significant development during the New York years was Borein’s brief formal training at the Art Students’ League in the medium of etching. His mastery of this technique would ultimately set his life’s work apart from his peers in American Western art. It was also in New York, in 1915 and 1917 that Borein had very successful one-man exhibitions that gave his career a noteworthy boost. Although Borein did produce the occasional aquatint and made rewarding use of the dry point needle, he was not one to deviate far from the tried and true methods of basic etching. Nearly 400 different etchings by Borein are now documented, though precise numbers will probably never be known.
Edward Borein returned to California in 1921 after his first and only marriage. He set up a studio in Santa Barbara where he managed art studios and taught at the local art school while producing vast quantities of etchings, drawings, and watercolors. His documented watercolors alone number over 1,000.
Edward Borein died in Santa Barbara in 1945 complaining of chest pains.
Boreins’s work was exhibited in galleries on both coasts and posthumously at the Amon Carter Museum, the Southwest Museum, and the Santa Barbara Museum.
The following information is courtesy of Cowan’s Auctions, Inc., June, 2006:
John Edward Borein was considered by many Western art experts, including Harold McCracken, to be in the same league of artists as Charles M Russell and Frederic Sackrider Remington. Borein was personally offended by the inaccurate depictions of the West and was adamant about portraying the West down to the last minute detail. His illustrations appeared in Harper’s, Colliers Weekly, Sunset Magazine and the Saturday Evening Post. His works are in the collection of the New York Public Library and the Cowboy Hall of Fame.