signed and dated lower right; titled on the matting and below the image in the margin
English-born Roland Gissing arrived in Calgary in 1913, as an 18-year-old drawn by the lure of the “Wild West” and cowboy culture. He spent 10 years working as a ranch hand, covering a distance between Peace River and Mexico, while sketching and drawing as a pastime. Gissing made the decision to become a professional artist in 1923 and began forging connections within the Calgary art community, including with R. L. Harvey (who oversaw the Calgary Exhibition & Stampede Art Department) and Leonard Richmond (a CPR painter and influential art instructor). Gissing received some formal instruction and his body of work soon impressed Ernie Richardson (of the Calgary Stampede & Exhibition), who granted Gissing a one-man show of his pastel and watercolour works – the artist’s chosen medium at the time. The 1929 show was received with such enthusiasm that a second exhibition was held later that year, hosted by art dealer Jack Booth.
Early works such as this one are rare, and the subject matter comes from Gissing’s genuine love for and experience with ranch life. Gissing remained a working cowboy throughout his life, though his art career moved to landscapes in oil beginning in the 1930s. He would occasionally return to cowboy subject matter.
