Terpning, Howard, 1927-

Howard Terpning was not always a western painter, like many western artists he started his career in illustration. Terpning was born in Oak Park, Illinois and received his art education at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art. While in Chicago he picked up jobs illustrating for publications, he then moved to New York and was a free lance illustrator for twenty five years.

In the mid-1970s, Terpning made a decision to leave New York and head west, to Tucson, Arizona. This is where he started painting dynamic western paintings. His paintings concentrate on the Native Americans of the Great Plains throughout the nineteenth century. He depicts these Native Americans as genuine and precise as possible. In 1979 Terpning was elected into the Cowboy Artists of America, an elite group of artists devoted to the western genre. Howard Terpning is considered one of the top contemporary western painters of his time. He has won numerous awards for his painting style. This particular painting, "A New Doll for My Granddaughter", was sold at the 2008 Jackson Hole Art Auction for $799,000.