The American West: The Art of David Wright

There are big goings-on these days at the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale. It all started this past May when the museum, in partnership with art collector Tim Peterson, presented one of the largest collections of original contemporary art of the mountain men. The exhibit will run through October. It is titled "One with the Land: The Mountain Man's Journey into the Unknown" and includes 72 pieces of artwork from 38 individuals.

The list of artists displaying their works reads like a WHO'S WHO of American Frontier and Western Art, including such names from the past as Maynard Dixon, Frank McCarthy, Joe Beeler, and Robert Lougheed. The living contemporary artists who thrill us with their portrayals of mountain men, cowboys and Indians, and images of the frontier are represented as well.

Reading down the list of participants, I quickly spied the name of David Wright, whom I have known by reputation for more than 60 years and counted as one of my best friends for nearly 40 of those years. During his long career, David has excelled in at least three fields of American historical art, including mountain men and the fur trade, the American Civil War, and a spectacular collection of art depicting his experience in Vietnam in 1964-65.

In 1942, the tiny town of Rosine, Kentucky, located about thirty miles southeast of Owensboro, had only one claim to fame: it was the birthplace of bluegrass music legend, Bill Monroe (1911-1996). By then, the talented mandolin player had signed a recording contract with RCA and his high-pitched, tenor voice was recognized and appreciated throughout the country. In years to come, he would be rewarded with the sobriquet, "the Father of Bluegrass Music."

One of the few infants born in Rosine during that first full year of World War II was David Wright, the third son of his hard-working parents. His father was a pipefitter, while his mother had her hands full taking care of three rapidly growing boys. David's residence in Rosine was brief and four years after his birth he and the rest of the family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where jobs were more plentiful, and a better life seemed inevitable. As years passed, David's short sojourn in Rosine bestowed another distinction upon the town as the birthplace and early childhood home of one of America's most popular and successful fine artists.

Life in Philadelphia was far different for David and his two older brothers, Joe and Don. Luckily for the three outdoors-active boys, the family settled a few miles from the sprawling city in an area full of woods, creeks, and meadows, ripe for exploration. The adventurous lads even contributed to making the family's financial ends meet by becoming amateur trappers. Mink, raccoons, and opossum were the primary prey, the skins of which, as David revealed years later to an interviewer, were sold "to Sears and Roebuck to get some spending money."

Six years of big city living proved to be enough for the Wright family, however, and when David was around ten years old, the entire clan moved back south to Goodlettsville, Tennessee, a small village in Davidson County just up the road from Nashville, the state capital. As the future careers of the three brothers later proved, their move to the historically rich region of Middle Tennessee would be providential for them.

The boys soon discovered that the first permanent settlement at the French Lick (or the Bluffs as it was sometimes called), situated along the Cumberland River in present-day Nashville, constituted the western-most, predominantly-English-speaking community in North America. This "great leap westward" from the western slopes of the Appalachian Mountains included a two-pronged attack. First, an overland trek led by James Robertson in late 1779 carried men, older boys, and livestock from the far northeastern section of present-day Tennessee along the Wilderness Road and numerous Indian paths and buffalo trails through 400 miles of rugged, densely forested territory.

During late 1779 and early 1780, Robertson's associate, John Donelson, commanded a four-month-long river expedition - fraught with life-threatening rapids and multiple encounters with hostile Indians – that carried a sizeable flatboat flotilla filled with women, young children, and the elderly from near the location of Robertson's earlier departure and down the Tennessee River, up the Ohio, and up the Cumberland to the French Lick.

Kasper Mansker was one of the first permanent settlers in the Middle Cumberland River valley. He had first visited the future Sumner County region in 1769 with a group of adventurers from southwestern Virginia. Over the next few years, Mansker returned to the area multiple times, and he accompanied James Robertson's 1779 overland party whose goal was the permanent settlement of the mid-Cumberland region. Soon after Donelson's river party joined Robertson's group at the French Lick, an event which foretold the establishment of future Nashville, Mansker returned to the area around present-day Goodlettsville and built a station along the west bank of the stream that became known as Mansker's Creek.

Mansker and several other men whose names have become synonymous with Middle Tennessee history - Isaac and Anthony Bledsoe, John Rains, Joseph Drake, Uriah Stone, Isaac Lindsey, Thomas (Bigfoot) Spencer among them - were called long hunters. These bold and rugged individuals left their eastern families for months on end, traveling far to the west searching for game animals, but at the same time, keeping their eyes open for new lands upon which they might someday relocate.

Long hunters, who pursued the white tail deer for the valuable skins, were the eighteenth-century equivalent of the nineteenth century "mountain men" of the American West who deserted civilization for long periods of time in search of elusive beaver populations in the deep recesses of the Rocky Mountains and along the upper Missouri River. Both groups of men, each in their own way and in their own geographical provinces, were the vanguard of civilization, the leading edge of exploration of the untouched wilderness that lay ahead, the trailblazers and mapmakers to whom all subsequent future settlers and townspeople owed a tremendous debt.

To young David Wright's delight, his Goodlettsville home was within walking distance of the site of Mansker's Station. His family's first few years in Goodlettsville were formative ones for the young boy with the adventurous mind. Living as he was – in a former hotbed of frontier action and personalities - his fascination with history grew rapidly, as did his interest in drawing and other forms of art.

"[History] has long been a strong part of my life. I got a coonskin cap in 1948 – long before Davy Crockett became popular in the '50s. I've still got that cap," he says with a smile, "but the tail is now stiff and sticks straight out in back." The Crockett craze that took hold of American youth in the mid-1950s sealed David's future and removed any doubts that the subject of American history would play a major role in his life.

"I became a real Davy Crockett fan and did drawings of Davy and Indians, but even before then I was drawing," he relates. "I always drew pictures, all the time, [even in] my childhood. I got in much trouble in school for drawing when I should have been studying."

Wright credits his mother for instilling in him a love of painting. Wright recalls that when he was about four years old, his mom drew pictures for him, including depictions of horses and a Gordon's potato chip truck. "These two images I recall very clearly...so maybe that was the seed that got me started."

Wright's public-school education was relatively uneventful as he continued honing his artistic skills and wrestled with how his future career might evolve. After completing Goodlettsville High School in 1960, he attended Nashville's Harris School of Art and, as part of the curriculum, in 1961 he took a summer's tour of Italy studying watercolor technique and Renaissance art.

While in Italy, he resided in a 16th century villa which contained an arms room consisting of a variety of ancient weapons and armor. His eyes spotted a 1763 French Charleville musket, the kind used in the French and Indian War in North America, complete with the original bayonet.

"I didn't know much about muzzleloaders at the time, but I was smart enough to figure out that this was something worth having," he revealed years later. The quiet and reserved Wright offered the villa's surprised owner practically all the money he had in his pocket - twenty-two dollars – for the two pieces and walked away the proud owner of his first flintlock weapon, thus beginning a life-long fascination with black powder arms shooting.

"My interest in history was unfolding and it was coupled with this gun I bought. It was my first muzzleloader, and it had a strong bearing on my life and my career. I hunted with it for years." Wright recalled.

Following his return from Italy, David completed a second year at the Harris school and started to work in the art department of the Newspaper Printing Corporation in Nashville. The company printed both Nashville newspapers, the Democratic Party-supported Tennessean, and the Republican Party-favorite, the Nashville Banner.

As the Civil War Centennial (1961-65) celebration progressed, Wright produced many action drawings and paintings to accompany historical s in both papers. In January 1964, just as affairs seemed to be going well for him, he received a draft notice from Uncle Sam summoning him to Fort Polk, Louisiana, for basic training in the U.S. Army.

In January 1964, when Wright arrived, Fort Polk had been back in business for only two years, but it was already tired and extremely unpopular. "That post was so bad, that the old timers called it a 'hardship tour' to be stationed there. I could agree," Wright recalled.

Following basic training, the young artist was very happy to be re-assigned to Fort Gordon, Georgia as an illustrator. "I was probably the only draftee in the Army who got the M.O. S. (Military Occupational Specialty) he asked for," he said.

Through summer and fall, Wright put in his time at Fort Gordon. He lamented later in an interview that "Nothing exciting happened [there]," so he requested to be shipped to a place he had just heard of called Vietnam. "People were shooting at you there and if I was going to be a soldier, I felt I should see what it was all about. I volunteered and was gone in a month" reporting in late 1964, just prior to Christmas.

Upon arrival, Wright was assigned as an MACV (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam) advisor to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). Although non-combat American army staff had been active in the country for a number of years since the defeat and exit of French colonial forces in 1954, in late 1961 President John F. Kennedy ordered the dispatch of two army helicopter units to the region.

By the time Wright arrived, United States army forces already stood at 20,000. When he left one year later, army strength had increased to nearly 200,000, and before the truce was called in 1975, more than 2.8 million GIs had participated, with nearly 60,000 killed or missing in action. A reflective Wright describes his experience:

"[I] flew 100-plus combat missions, many as a volunteer door gunner on a helicopter gunship with the 197th Aviation Company. Picked up two air medals, an Army Commendation Medal, Vietnamese Medal of Honor, and the other usual campaign ribbons – nothing heroic, however – and a little more insight into life. I don't think anybody can be involved in a war without valuing life more dearly afterwards because of it. Be at the wrong place at the wrong time and it was all over. It was that easy; you had no control over it."

Fortunately, the artist Wright found time to document the people and places of Vietnam in a series of poignant drawings and paintings. The reclusive Montagnard folk who inhabited the central part of the country and with whom he served with for two months were a favorite subject. Wright was so respected by these natives that they adopted him into their tribe.

The resultant art produced during this time was the subject of an acclaimed art exhibit a few years ago when Wright and his fellow artist, friend, and Vietnam veteran Chuck Creasy released their joint exhibition titled "Vietnam – 2 Soldiers, Two Artists, 2 Journeys Then and Now – The Vietnam Art of David Wright and Chuck Creasy.

Following his discharge, David turned his artistic abilities to documenting America's westward expansion, with works depicting the Lewis and Clark Expedition, mountain men, American Indians, and other frontier scenes set both east and west of the Mississippi River. By 1973, his limited-edition prints were being published by Gray Stone Press in Nashville, noted for its fine art print reproductions.

Following several years of unprecedented success and a revival of interest in the American Civil War, David turned his attentions to portraying images of some of the more popular and successful military leaders of the Confederate States of America.

"Considering my interest in painting the War Between the States in my early days, Gray Stone Press continuously urged me to do Civil War paintings for prints. After returning from Vietnam, I had no interest in doing War paintings, but I still had an intense interest in our Civil War history and, growing up in the South, particularly the Southern involvement in the war. By the 1990s, I agreed to paint non-combat scenes and only of Southern soldiers. They agreed."

Wright's realistic portrayals of Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, and Nathan Bedford Forrest, among others, made Wright's paintings extremely popular. His artistic renditions have rewarded him with international acclaim among art collectors, critics, and museums.

His name is found in Who's Who in American Art and his paintings are displayed in museums and private collections across the country, including the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia; the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis, Indiana; the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville; the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and the Wilderness Road State Park, both in Virginia; and the Sam Davis Historic Home Museum in Smyrna, Tennessee, and others.

Although his art commissions keep him busy, Wright has found time to contribute his vast knowledge of frontier America, as well as his painting, technical, and writing skills to the production of several movies and documentaries. He served as an "extra" in the 1992 big screen hit, "The Last of the Mohicans" where he met Cherokee actor Wes Studi who became friends and has modeled for Wright.

"Wes has been the ultimate Indian model for me." David has Art Directed documentaries, among them "Daniel Boone and The Westward Movement," "Refuge in The Wilderness," 80 Acres of Hell," and "First Invasion: The War Of 1812," which rewarded him with a nomination for a prime-time EMMY award.

Ever since I first met David Wright those many years ago and watched his skills develop, I've maintained that one of the most important and influential factors in his highly successful career is his ability to accurately portray his subject whether it be a lone mountain man, or a Lewis and Clark scene, or an American Indian tribesman.

Wright can maintain this accuracy, because as a long-time member of the American Mountain Men, he has "walked the walk and talked the talk" of his heroes. He has survived in the wilderness and camped out with no modern amenities – only the clothing, equipment, and accoutrements from the fur trade period that he portrays so accurately in many of his mountain men works.

Wright has traveled along the path of Lewis and Clark and one can assure himself that David's renditions of keelboats and pirogues on the Missouri River and its overhanging bluffs reflect the view witnessed by the men of the Corps of Discovery.

The appellation "Renaissance Man" is sometimes overused in today's world when individuals of exceptional ability are rewarded for their broad spectrums of knowledge and accomplishments. Not so with David Wright. He is an artist, photographer, historian, writer, part-time actor, storyteller, and documentarian all rolled into one.

I personally believe the old adage, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Modify that word count to "thousands and thousands of words" and you will appreciate David Wright's influence on the graphic representation of America's magnificent pre-twentieth century history.

Visit Wright's Website at: www.Davidwrightart.Com

You can reach James A. Crutchfield at