The Best of Proctor’s West: An In-Depth Study of Eleven of Proctor’s Bronzes

The Buffalo Bill Center of the West is home to the most extensive collection of material related to sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor (1860–1950). The museum’s unrivaled holdings include the artist’s papers, personal effects, studio paraphernalia, and original works of art. Vast archival collections are made available for research through the Center’s McCracken Research Library, and a wide selection of Proctor’s bronze, marble, and plaster sculptures and paintings, drawings, and prints are presented within the Whitney Western Art Museum.
 
These rich resources informed and inspired The Best of Proctor’s West project, an in-depth study of eleven of the artist’s most celebrated bronzes. Comprising a scholarly publication and a searchable online database, the project weds connoisseurship and science. Bronzes studied include Fawn (first and second models), Stalking Panther (multiple variations), Arab Stallion, Indian Warrior (large and small versions), Moose, Elk, Q Street Buffalo, Buckaroo (multiple variations), Pursued (1914 and 1928 versions), Buffalo Hunt, and On the War Path.
 
A new, richly illustrated catalogue, The Best of Proctor’s West: An In-Depth Study of Eleven of Proctor’s Bronzes, contains extended interpretive essays by Peter H. Hassrick on each of the selected bronzes. Allison Rosenthal discusses recent scientific examinations of Proctor’s bronzes using X-ray florescence (XRF) spectrometry. Karen B. McWhorter adds an introduction about the Center’s Proctor Studio Collection and offers a brief biography of the artist. The online database complements and expands upon the publication.

Peter H. Hassrick (1941–2019) was Director Emeritus and Senior Scholar at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of many publications, including Frederic Remington: A Catalogue Raisonné II, Painted Journeys: The Art of John Mix Stanley, and In Contemporary Rhythm: The Art of Ernest L. Blumenschein.

Karen B. McWhorter is the Scarlett Curator of Western American Art for the Whitney Western Art Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. She has contributed essays to Elevating Western American Art: Developing an Institute in the Cultural Capital of the Rockies (2012), A Place in the Sun: The Southwest Paintings of Walter Ufer & E. Martin Hennings (2015), Fur Traders and Rendezvous: The Alfred Jacob Miller Online Catalogue, and Invisible Boundaries: Exploring Yellowstone’s Great Animal Migrations (2016), and has authored numerous articles on contemporary western American art. 
 

Allison Rosenthal is the Advanced Conservation Research Fellow at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, and was an intern in the Center's conservation lab in 2015 and 2016. She has also worked in the conservation labs at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Museum, the Newberry Library, and the New York Academy of Medicine.