Sagebrush and Solitude

The first book on the great American landscape painter to focus primarily on his work in Nevada, capturing the beauty of the American West, its open spaces and the developing landscape at the dawn of the modern era.

This is the first comprehensive publication on the paintings, letters, photographs, and poetry made by Maynard Dixon (1875–1946) while he was in Nevada. This large, landscape format book accompanies a blockbuster exhibition on this colorful western painter and illustrator.

Although Dixon’s contributions as an artist are widely recognized throughout the American West, this significant publication surveys nearly 180 artworks he created in Nevada, Lake Tahoe, and the Eastern Sierra from 1901 to 1944. Dixon first visited the state of Nevada nearly 125 years ago; and while much has changed during the past century, one can still explore many of the same remote locales depicted in these paintings or drive across the state beneath what many like to refer to as a cloud-filled, “Maynard Dixon sky.”

Richly illustrated, including a wealth of privately owned paintings never before reproduced, the volume includes by texts by scholar Donald J. Hagerty on Dixon’s Nevada journeys, a significant essay on the art of the Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam), and Dixon’s depictions of the workers who built the dam. The book has a 3-piece binding and gilded edges.

Ann M. Wolfe is the Andrea and John C. Deane Family Chief Curator and Associate Director at the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno.

Donald J. Hagerty is the author of Desert Dreams: The Art and Life of Maynard Dixon, The Life of Maynard Dixon, and Art of Maynard Dixon.

Ann Keniston, PhD, is a Reno-based poet, essayist, and literary critic and professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno.

John Ott, PhD, is Professor of Art History at James Madison University.