The Desert Caballeros Western Museum is home to one of the nation’s most comprehensive roundups of Western art, with over 700 paintings, sculpture, photographs and works on paper spanning over 200 years of Western art.  The journey begins with George Catlin (1796-1872), one of the country’s foremost explorer artists.  Because Catlin lived prior to the invention of the camera, his paintings such as Black Hawk and the Prophet provided America and the world with their only visual record of the West.  Holdings include work by members of the Rocky Mountain School such as Albert Bierstadt.  Trained in the romantic European style, this artist first came west in 1859 with a survey party.  His Pikes Peak celebrates the West’s “natural cathedrals.”  Another gem, Thomas Moran’s A Passing Storm, is a leading example of this romantic, awe-inspiring style.

Art Collections

History Collections

Oral History Collection

 


Pictured above: Joe Beeler, Thanks for the Rain, bronze; Desert Caballeros Western Museum