Ranney’s oil paintings show
some macho, macho men

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

William Ranney didn’t tell the whole story about the American West. But that’s understandable, considering the mid-19th-century painter spent so little of his own life there.
Yet the Connecticut native, who grew up in North Carolina, saw enough during his six months fighting in the Texas War of Independence from Mexico to spark his vividly romantic and patriotic imagination.
So when he returned east after the war to embark on an art career, he had all of the practical experience he would need to quench the nation’s great thirst for stories of the frontier and westward expansion.
A traveling exhibition of Ranney’s popular oil paintings of the West, as well as his lesser known portraits, sportsman scenes and American Revolutionary scenes, will be on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Aug. 19.
Organized by the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyo., Forging An American Identity: The Art of William Ranney features about 60 works that evoke a similar kind of American spirit to be found in the later prose of Zane Grey and the films of John Ford.
"In a way, this is really about all of us," said Norman Keyes, the museum’s director of marketing and public relations and a boyhood Grey fan.
The text in the exhibition makes it a point to note that the mostly self-trained Ranney (1813-1857) actually offers very little insight into the cultures of Native Americans and their inseparable link to European exploration and settlement of the continent.
The few paintings in the exhibition that actually depict Native Americans show them as almost indiscernible figures set far in the distance, posing a threat, perhaps, but not necessarily an immediate one.
Similarly, the artist does not approach other pervasive subjects of his day, such as slavery and the tenuous state of the Union.
Rather, Ranney devotes his efforts to portraying the fur trappers, pioneers and "mountain men" in heroic terms, overcoming great hardships to seek their fortunes and fulfill the nation’s manifest destiny.
"East Coast audiences were enthralled by stories about the danger and hardships of such men," the exhibition text states, "and novels, narratives and paintings such as The Last Shot helped shape the popular image of the frontiersman as a rugged individualist, ever fearless and determined."
The Last Shot (1850) is similar to many works in the collection in theme and composition. It is considered one of the artist’s best-known images. It depicts a trapper on horseback crossing a marshy stream. He is contorting to look behind at the small silhouette of a spear-raised Native American in the distance. The trapper holds his long-barreled shotgun low but at the ready, preparing to use it if necessary but presumably preferring not to.
As in his other Westerns, Ranney’s realist technique allows the subjects, setting and action tell the story in terms understandable to even the most undiscerning observer. Ironically, Keyes noted, the artist easily may have painted the grasses, marshes and other elements in his works not from his brief trip to Texas but rather by relying on the landscape outside his West Hoboken, N.J., studio.
Whatever the source, however, the images create their desired effect.
In Boone’s First View of Kentucky (1849), Ranney depicts the early-American pioneer as he emerges from the Appalachians to stand before the virgin Kentucky wilderness.
"Boone stands at center with his feet firmly planted and his hat thrown to the ground as a gesture of claiming the land," the exhibition text states.
"Coming shortly after the end of the Mexican War and the discovery of gold in California, its theme of discovery mirrored the American belief that it was the United States’ destiny to expand westward to the Pacific."
Advice on the Prairie (1853) unites the "mountain man" with the pioneer family, as a seasoned trapper and wilderness guide dispenses wisdom to the men, women and children of a party traversing the vast American interior in a covered wagon.
While the scenes depicted in these and other Ranney works may or may not have reflected accurately the actual experiences of the Western settlers of the time, they were totally true to life as far as folks back East were concerned.
Ranney’s paintings in large part defined the way that Americans thought of the Old West then and for subsequent generations.
"He created this whole vocabulary of art that tied into Western mythology," Keyes said.
Though he was prolific, having produced about 150 paintings, Ranney’s career was cut short in 1857, when he died of tuberculosis at 44. ••
For more information about "Forging An American Identity: The Art of William Ranney," visit www.philamuseum.org or call 215-763-8100.
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com