Takin' Texas North

G. Harvey

Takin’ Texas North depicts former Texas Rangers and legendary trail blazers Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving driving their herd north from Texas to Colorado on the Goodnight-Loving trail in 1867.

On that trail drive, Loving and “one armed” Bill Wilson left the herd to chase down Comanche raiders who had stolen some of their cattle. A few days later, the two cattlemen were ambushed by the Comanches. Wilson escaped uninjured, but Loving was grievously wounded. He eventually was found barely alive and taken to Fort Sumner, New Mexico. On September 15, 1867, Goodnight, who had stayed with the herd while Loving and Wilson had chased the Comanches, reached his friend and partner’s bedside. As he lay dying, Loving extracted from Goodnight a promise to bury him back in Texas: “I don’t want my bones to rest in alien soil,” he said. Goodnight agreed, but being Charley Goodnight, he first had to finish the job he had set out to do.

Charles Goodnight finished the trail drive and delivered his herd. Several months later, he returned to Fort Sumner, had Loving’s body exhumed and packed in charcoal in a casket that was slung on a wagon’s running gear. He then carried his friend’s body six hundred miles back to Weatherford, Texas where he was buried.

Charley Goodnight was the model for Woodrow F. Call, and Oliver Loving was the Gus McCrae character in Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning, epic novel of Texas, Lonesome Dove.

Takin’ Texas North is without doubt G. Harvey’s most iconic Texas painting. In this great, museum-quality work of art, one finds the true Spirit of Texas. It speaks of vision, courage, loyalty, honor, rugged individualism and perseverance – the qualities and values that built and sustain Texas.

Artist Bio

He is not only one of America’s master painters, he is also one of the most beloved and collected artists of our lifetime. The name says it all – G. Harvey.

Collectors and critics agree that G. Harvey's original paintings allow one to experience the mood and feel of a scene-the drama of a special moment in time-an accomplishment unique to a great talent who creates important art.

As Don Hedgpeth wrote in 1978, G. Harvey "…paints not only with his eye and hand, but with his heart as well. A Harvey work does not restrict the viewer to a single response. Those who look at his work are invited to participate in the creative process to bring their own experiences and feelings into the painting."

Born in 1933 in San Antonio, Gerald Harvey Jones grew up in the Texas Hill Country listening to his father and grandfather tell stories about ranch life, frontier days in Texas, and driving cattle across the Red River.

A graduate of North Texas State University, G. Harvey soon became a full-time artist and emerged on the national scene in 1965 when he won the prestigious New Masters Award in the American Artist Professional League Grand National Exhibition in New York. He soon won personal commissions from the President of the United States and other prominent American collectors.

In 1987 G. Harvey received the Distinguished Alumni Award from his alma mater. In 1991, he was honored with a series of one-man shows in Washington, D.C. at the National Archives and the U.S. Treasury Department, culminating in a one man show at the Smithsonian Institution. One of his paintings was selected as the cover art for the Smithsonian’s 150th Anniversary book.

After two decades of sell-out shows and a lifetime of awards, G. Harvey is one of the most distinguished names in American art. His numerous honors include the Legacy Award from the Briscoe Museum and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Booth Museum. His fine art can be found in the best private, corporate, museum and national collections worldwide.

G. Harvey represents the true Spirit of America, and The Shelton Smith Collection is honored to present a fine selection of some of his signature works.

- BY SHELTON SMITH