Lea Franklin McCarty
1905 - 1960
Lea Franklin McCarty was born in 1905 in Los Angeles, California, and died in 1960 in Santa Rosa,
California. McCarty was a sculptor and portrait artist, and painted western portraits of gunfighters,
sheriffs, and women of the old west. In 1956, he began a series of portraits titled "Gunslingers of the
Old West."
It is an interesting paradox that our famous Old West gunfighters had
not been painted until Lea McCarty went to work on them to set down
authentically in oil these characters as they actually appeared. These paintings were the result of
researching photographs of western figures including Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp in the photography
collection of the Bandera Museum in Bandera, Texas. His paintings are housed in public buildings and
private collections throughout the States.
A
great deal of effort and care has been expended to make these paintings
possible, and material was given by Mr. Frank Bonnell, Frank Coe's
grandson, Lincoln, New Mexico; the late Mr. Marvin Hunter, Bandera,
Texas, co-author with N. H. Rose of "Album of Gunfighters"; Cattleman
Mr. Claude Collins of San Angelo, Texas, and Wyatt Earp's old deputy,
Mr. A. M. King (very much alive, 1959), and Mrs. Edna Landin,
President, Tombstone Restoration Commission.
Mr.
A. M. King, Wyatt's old deputy, writes; "I worked with Earp at
the turn of the century as a law enforcing officer in both California
and Arizona Territory and in my opinion, Mr. McCarty has done a
magnificent job on the Old West paintings, -- perhaps as outstanding as
anything yet painted on the Old West. He has done Wyatt Earp in a
true likeness and the cold blue of the eyes is remarkable, for it was
this that made many gunfighters back down."
Mr. Raymond Carlson, editor of "Arizona Highways", said: "It seems to
me that Mr. McCarty has done a splendid job on this series and that the
paintings will eventually truly cherished documents.
Thomas Thompson, 1958, President of Western Writers of America, author
of some 14 novels and Saturday Evening Post stories, and who has also
just finished a picture with Metro Goldwyn-Mayer, has this to
say: "Now that television has discovered the romance of the West
I sometimes wince at the distance we have traveled from the true facts,
which has always been the background of good western fiction. Lea
McCarty, the artist, in his dedicated effort to present a true picture
of famous and infamous men of the west, has not only added a fine
chapter to western art, he has also rendered a real service to the many
writers and students who love one of the most glamorous chapters of our
American past."
Calamity Jane | Clay Allison | Curly Bill | Dave Mather
Doc Holliday | Jesse James | Jim Courtright | Joaquin Murrietta
John Ringo | John Wesley Hardin | King Fisher | Luke Short
Old Man Clanton | Pat Garrett | Wild Bill Hickok | Wyatt Earp
OK Corral | Artist - Lea Franklin McCarty