Fireplace screen from Lawrence Tenney Stevens’ Cody design era. Fold-out mesh screen with cut-out metal designs in Steven’s style. Central scene of a cowboy on a bucking horse "sunfishing" with a corral fence on the right and a semi-comical cowboy spectator. Cactus and trees on each side, all done in a heavy raised sheet metal. Clean lines and sharp design. 36" tall; main panel is 46" wide, the fold-out "wings" are each 12" wide.
Lawrence Tenney Stevens (1896-1972)
“…Meanwhile, Stevens had been spending his summers in Cody, Wyoming working on expanding his American West-themed body of work. He modeled and sculpted in clay, plaster, bronze and marble everything from the animals and workers of the ranches to the champion bronco riders he saw at local rodeos. He was granted the first one-man show at Cody's Buffalo Bill Museum in 1932. It was in Cody that Cowboy High Style began to develop, catalyzed both by Stevens' work and the work of local furniture designer Thomas Molesworth, both of whom championed simple designs imbued with the spirit of the American West. Stevens' figures from this period are scattered all over the American Southwest. One of his largest commissions was for the Centennial Fairgrounds and Esplanade for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas.”
--from Wikipedia.com
“Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Lawrence Tenney Stevens was a sculptor of western animals as well as painter and printmaker who studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School, Pratt Institute, and privately with Charles Grafly and Bela Pratt. To increase his understanding of anatomy, he took anatomy classes at Tufts Medical School.
In 1922, he earned the Prix de Rome, which allowed him to study in Rome at the American Academy with Paul Manship, and it is thought that from that time, they influenced each other's work. In 1929, he visited Arizona and Cody, Wyoming, where "his presence is thought to have been influential in the emergence of the Cowboy High Style in the decorative arts."
In 1935, he spent time in Dallas, Texas where he was on George Dahl's staff for exterior decorations at the Fair Park for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Corps, and in 1954 moved briefly to Tulsa, Oklahoma where he was Director of the Philbrook Art Center.
In 1954, he settled in Tempe, Arizona and beginning in 1960 with a sculpture called Cutting Horse, he did a "Rodeo Series." Usually he left his bronzes with natural finish and no patina. According to Peggy and Harold Samuels, he was "a lean, sinewy man galloping through life in Western pants and cowboy boots".
Stevens died at sea in 1972 on a return trip to America from Italy.”
--from AskArt.com
Lot 179, Sold $5,900
Brian Lebel's Cody Old West Auction - June 26th, 2021, Santa Fe, NM.
