Meadowlark Gallery: The Artist Biographies
Joe DeYong (1894-1975)
Joe DeYong was born in 1894 in Webster Grove, Missouri and died in Los Angeles, California in 1975. He was a traditional western painter, sculptor, and an Honorary Member of the Cowboy Artists of America. DeYong as a boy saw Charles Russell's paintings at the St. Louis World's Fair. They brought him up in the Indian Territory, a friend of Will Rogers who taught him fancy roping. At fourteen, he began "riding for wages." At seventeen, he was in charge of cattle for Tom Mix in making a movie, continuing with Mix in Arizona as a cowboy bit player. An attack of spinal meningitis caused deafness. During his convalescence, he wrote to Russell for advice on sculpting. The illustrated reply drew DeYong to Montana where he worked in Russell's studio from 1916 to 1926 when Russell died. DeYong became an important Western artist in his own right, a friend of other Western artists including Gollings, Borein, Dixon, Frank Tenney Johnson, and Clyde Forsythe. DeYong's deafness led him to Indian sign language and to an interest in all things Indian so that he became a technical adviser on Indians for the movie industry.
View high resolution images of works by Joe DeYong when available.