SCOUTING REPORT | Harvey Dunn on auction, feeding Army reservists, Daugaard’s dairy award, China's sporting scandals

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In 2022, the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction fetched a world record price for a painting done by South Dakota artist Harvey Dunn. The 1942 painting “The Homesteaders” sold for $393,250.

Now, a new Dunn painting will be featured for sale in this year’s Coeur d’Alene Art Auction in July. Painted in 1908, Dunn titled it “On the Move.” Both paintings feature a man leading a team of oxen pulling a woman riding in a wagon. But their view is from a different perspective: The 1942 version is a side view while the 1908 painting shows the man and oxen walking toward the viewer.

Dunn, born in 1884 to a homesteading family, grew up on a farm in rural South Dakota. He is best known for his western depictions of life on the American frontier, but he also served as an illustrator for the U.S. Army during World War I, “where,” according to the Smithsonian Institute’s biography, “he established a reputation as a bold, even foolhardy, combat artist.”

“Dunn’s celebrity far exceeded that of any of his fellow war artists and much more has been written about him than any of the others,” the Smithsonian concluded.

The 1942 and 1908 works can be appreciated by Dunn’s own view on painting: “When you choose a picture, think of it from all angles, then choose the most barren, most brutal way of saying it. Say it strongly and simply with the fewest possible things necessary.”

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