Edward Borein 1928 Original Western Holiday Card Etching

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Edward Borein 1928 Original Western Holiday Card Etching
American Western Art - Etching on Paper - Signed
Card size 6x9 … Read more Edward Borein 1928 Original Western Holiday Card Etching
American Western Art - Etching on Paper - Signed
Card size 6x9 - Frame size: 12x15"

Description:
This framed holiday card is a 1928 custom etching and greeting card created by famed Western artist Edward Borein and his wife Lucile. Measuring a small 12x15 inches including the ornate frame, the artwork depicts a classic frontier scene titled "A Pack Train Loaded With Good Wishes".

Visual Elements & Composition
The Foreground: A cowboy or vaquero sits upright on a saddled horse on the left side of the trail, keeping watch over his team.
The Pack Train: Four heavily loaded pack mules form a single-file line trailing behind the rider, moving down a dusty hillside path.
The Background: A steep, rugged rock formation or desert butte dominates the center-left horizon, framed by simple, fine line work indicating sparse clouds and dry terrain.
Artistic Style: The sketch uses highly detailed, delicate black-ink linework and stippling characteristic of Borein's authentic, documentary approach to the disappearing American West.

Typography & Text Detail
Main Heading: Printed at the top left in an elegant, clean sans-serif typeface, the card reads: "A Pack Train Loaded With Good Wishes".
Attribution: Positioned on the right side, the text reads: "Edward and Lucile Borein".
Location & Date: Printed in a smaller font size underneath their names, it specifies: "SANTA BARBARA / Christmas, 1928".
Artist Signature: Edward Borein's distinct handwritten signature is etched into the bottom-center of the image plate.

Framing & Presentation
Matting: The central card rests within a wide, warm-tan colored mat board that mirrors the natural desert tones of the Western imagery.
Frame: The piece is housed in a dark brown, heavily molded wood frame featuring intricate rope-style and beaded detailing along the borders, providing a sophisticated border for a highly collectible piece of early California history

Artist Biography
Early Life and Cowboy Origins
Born on October 21, 1872, in the western cow town of San Leandro, California, Borein was fascinated by the American frontier from early childhood. His maternal grandfather was a famed horseman in Alta California, establishing a multi-generational connection to Spanish-Mexican cowboy heritage.
By age 17, Borein completely rejected traditional career paths, briefly apprenticed under a saddle-maker, and set out to live as a working cowboy. He spent the next twenty years moving between expansive ranches stretching from Canada down through the American Southwest, Mexico, and Guatemala. Wherever he rode, Borein sketched obsessively on whatever surfaces he could find, including scraps of paper, cardboard boxes, and bunkhouse walls.

Artistic Training and "The Authentic West"
Borein had almost no formal artistic education. At his mother's urging, he enrolled at the San Francisco Art Association Art School in his late teens but dropped out after just one month, finding rigid classroom structures ill-suited to his free-roaming nature. However, that brief stint introduced him to fellow Western painter Maynard Dixon, who strongly encouraged him to pursue art full-time.
His first breakthrough came when notable Southwest historian Charles Lummis discovered his sketches, purchasing pieces for publication in The Land of Sunshine magazine. This professional launch eventually took Borein to New York City in 1907, where he refined his technical printmaking skills at the Art Students League alongside impressionist Childe Hassam and etcher Ernest Roth. He became a highly successful commercial illustrator for massive contemporary publications like Harper's Weekly, Collier's, and Sunset.

The Santa Barbara Years & Legacy
Despite his commercial success in New York, Borein longed for the West Coast. In 1921, he returned to California permanently and settled in Santa Barbara, marrying Lucile Maxwell later that year. He opened an art studio in the historic El Paseo walkway, which quickly evolved into an epicenter for prominent actors, authors, and artists. He formed a close artistic triumvirate with humorist Will Rogers and legendary Montana painter Charles M. Russell.
During his fruitful decades in Santa Barbara, Borein focused intensely on etching and watercolor. He dedicated himself entirely to historical accuracy, noting before his death:
"I will leave only an accurate picture of the West, nothing else but that. If anything isn't authentic or just right, I won't put it in any of my work."
Borein passed away in Santa Barbara in 1945. Today, his meticulously detailed etchings of longhorn cattle drives, Native American migrations, Spanish missions, and pack trains—including custom annual pieces like your 1928 holiday card—are preserved as invaluable historical relics. The largest permanent archive of his work is housed locally at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum.
John Edward Borein (1872–1945) was one of the most prominent and celebrated American artists of the Western genre. Unlike many contemporaries who romanticized the frontier from comfortable East Coast studios, Borein spent over two decades living the grueling, authentic life of a working vaquero. This deep immersion transformed him into a critical visual historian, leaving behind an unparalleled documentary record of a rapidly vanishing lifestyle. See less