Born on a farm near Augusta, Maine, W. Herbert Dunton became a leading American illustrator and renowned painter in the early art colony of Taos, New Mexico. His specialty was painting the untamed West before it disappeared.

Especially helpful to his career was the patronage of Texans Nelda and H.J. Lutcher Stark whose collection founded the Stark Museum in Orange, Texas. They bought hundreds of Dunton's paintings during the Depression because his renderings of animals and landscape greatly appealed to Texans, and their Dunton paintings became the largest collection in America by that artist.

When he was a youngster, Dunton spent much time roaming the woods and fields around Augusta w...