(1899-1988)
"From the opening of the American West until this present day, artist have sought to capture the rugged beauty, the drama and the romance of this unique part of our national heritage. None have been more successful than Olaf Wieghorst."
- Ronald Reagan
Olaf Wieghorst was bron in Viborg, Denmark and by the age of nine, was skilled in horseback acrobatics and performed as a stunt rifer for the Danish Circus throughout different parts of Europe. He arrived in the United States in 1918, and worked on a farm where he regularly rode horses. He developed a love for horses and they were to become a major theme in his paintings during his career as an artist.
As a young man he served in military as part of the U.S. Calvary and during his time with the cavalry, Wieghorst worked on the Mexican border during the days of the Mexican revolutionary general, Pancho Villa. After leaving the calvary, Wieghorst traveled throughout the West where he often found work as a cowboy in New Mexico and Arizona. He later worked as a mounted policeman in New York until 1944. He was a self-taught artist and took up painting in his time off. He became so proficient with painting that the Grand Central Art Galleries of the Biltmore Hotel chose to represent him as an artist. During his career, Wieghorst would learn to master oil painting and watercolor painting, as well as numerous other art mediums.
In 1924 Wieghorst devoted all of his energies to painting. His love of horses and the west showed in his paintings and his work is comprised mostly of Western genre, horses, cowboys, and Indians. He also created a number of horse portraits and would study their personalities as part of creating the painting.
