Some of the most influential art about the West is not fine art, but rather pulpy and dramatic images painted for magazines and book covers throughout the 20th century. These were images that were mass produced, available in many locations and hugely popular.
Heritage Auctions will present a collection of these Western images within its March 26 Paperback, Science Fiction & Fantasy Illustration Art Showcase Auction in Dallas, Texas.
Edgar F. Wittmack (1894-1956), The Big Noise at Silver River, Short Stories magazine cover, July 1928, oil on canvas, 29½ x 21 in. Estimate: $1/1,500
Highlights in the sale include Edgar F. Wittmack’s The Big Noise at Silver River, a 1928 cover for Short Stories. The image, showing two wounded men, is composed around a sun-like sphere with room at the top of the painting for the magazine’s logo, as was common on these types of illustrations.
Robert Stanley (1918-1996), Badlands Beyond paperback cover, 1965, oil on board, 9½ x 135⁄8 in. Estimate: $1/3,000
Another work is Robert Stanley’s painting for the cover of the paperback book Badlands Beyond by Norman A. Fox. The painting shows a man on a horse with a noose around his neck as riders gallop toward him. Images like this, a little shocking and somewhat rare in fine art, allowed illustrators to tell action-packed stories with evocative imagery. Many of the stories, and their accompanying images, were sensationalized and not exactly authentic to history. But the public ate it up, which is reflected in the vast number of pulp magazines of the mid-20th century.
Albert Beck Wenzell (1864-1917), On the Lookout, gouache on board, 27 x 385⁄8 in. Estimate: $700/1,000
Other Western artists represented in the sale are Albert Beck Wenzell and Jerome Podwil. —
Paperback, Science Fiction & Fantasy Illustration Art Showcase Auction
March 26, 2025
Heritage Auctions
2801 W. Airport Freeway, Dallas, TX 75261
(877) 437-4824, www.ha.com
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