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William Sanderson was born in modern-day Latvia as Wilhelm Tsieglnitsky. Prompted by the political upheaval of the time, he and his family immigrated to the United States, where he received instruction at the Fawcett School of Industrial Art under Ida Wells Stroud and the National Academy of Design in Manhattan under the tutelage of Charles Hawthorne, William Auerbach-Levy and Charles L. Hinton. He also received instruction from Charles Locke at the Art Students League. Sanderson then had a career in illustration for magazines and books. He would later move west to teach at the University of Denver, where he began focusing on painting realist and surrealist depictions of the American West, primarily in oils and watercolor.Label Type
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In the Pioneer Family William Sanderson paints a picture of a uniquely American Western scene. A homesteading family is a familiar scene from American iconography that brings to mind hardworking and brave people forging their own paths in the Wild West. This uniquely Western portrait is further reinforced by the easily missed mesa located in the left corner. These landforms, although rare in other areas of the United States, are found in abundance in the West. These iconic and somewhat stereotypical images of the American West and the people that settled it are juxtaposed by the bitter, even blank, look that can be seen in the subjects’ eyes. This invites the viewer to question if the artist intended this painting to truly glorify homesteading, or if it is meant to lead the viewer to wonder just what happens when you attempt to tame the “wild” West.