Actor William S. Hart was the first silent-movie cowboy and a model for sculpture. The large version of this work titled The Cowboy won an Honorable Mention in the Paris Salon of 1923 before donation to the Texas State Capitol. A modified version, Tribute to Range Riders, stands in front of the Oklahoma State Capitol. The dark patina on this piece, called “Valsuani Noir”, was created by employing a torch. Notice the raised edges around Warren’s signature on the base. Writing directly into the soft wax model, she displaced the wax and pushed it into ridges around the letters. The sculpture appears to be cast in one piece including the base.

From the exhibition:Frontier to Foundry: the Making of Small Bronze Sculpture in the Gilcrease Collection, December 2014 - March 2015.
Ann Boulton Young, Associate Conservator for the Gilcrease Museum, 2014.