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Local Event
Cost: Members $15 - Guests $20
Join us for a talk about new book, Joe De Yong: A Life in the West by author and Western historian, Bill Reynolds.
Reservation required. $15 Members, $20 Guests
Publisher and author William Reynolds has worked in the Western Industry for over 35 years. He authored “The Art Of The Western Saddle,” which was named Equine Book of the Year in 2004 by American Horse Publications and published western journals The Cowboy Way and Ranch & Reata. Along with horseman Buck Brannaman, he wrote the best-selling “The Faraway Horses” and “Believe: A Horseman’s Journey.” Mr Reynolds currently serves as a Museum trustee.
Joe DeYong (1894 – 1975) was an artist, illustrator, writer and sculpture who lived during the golden age Western art in the last century. He was born in the heartland – near St. Louis, MO in the small town of Webster Groves. His parents picked-up and move to “Indian territory” near Dewey, Oklahoma where his father Adrian DeYong opened a mercantile store and young Joe attended school and worked on ranches with a deep love of the cowboy ways. He had the opportunity to meet and work on a few western films with the then, silent-screen hero, Tom Mix but during that period in early 1913, contracted an illness. Mix notified DeYong’s parents with a short, too-the-point telegram – “Joe has cerebro-meningitis. Doctor says serious. Tom Mix” Joe would ultimately recover but he would be left totally deaf. In 1916, DeYong had the opportunity to correspond with and ultimately meet the great western artist of the day, Charles M. Russell. It would be one of many introductions that would change DeYong’s life. In this case he would work with Russell in his studio for ten years until Russell’s death in 1926. DeYong was very close to both Charlie and his wife Nancy Russell – who helped him with his career.
The two introduced DeYong to Howard Eaton, owner of the Eaton Ranch – one of the first guest ranches in the West. DeYong would work there thru the 1920’s and later move to Santa Barbara, CA to work with other artist friends of Russell including Edward Borein, Maynard Dixon and others. DeYong’s life would go on to include work in Hollywood on numerous classic westerns as well being a tremendous influence on the lives of other western artists. His writings, art and sculptures would create a picture of a region’s culture that would change dramatically at the end of the 1930s with the start of WWII. Joe DeYong’s story is an untold one about a quiet man who influenced many and helped establish and celebrate many important western artists. Joe DeYong died in Los Angeles, CA in 1975 but left behind an important contribution to the art and culture of the American West.
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Santa Barbara Historical Museum
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