Round Up
Bronze
12 7/8 x 11 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches
Biography
Hughlette "TEX" Wheeler was born in Florida in 1900. He worked as a ranch hand as a young man but had a talent for sculpture. Wheeler won a scholarship to study sculpture in Paris and while there he produced a number of Western sculptures that were cast by the Valsuani foundry in Paris. He returned to the United States and opened a studio in Cleveland, Ohio. Wheeler then moved west to Arizona and then to Los Angeles, where he also had a studio, before returning to his native Florida. All of his works are of a Western theme most being cowboys at work, busting broncos riding the range or miners with packhorses. Wheeler also did several portrait commissions of patron's horses, polo players and their horses and famous racehorses. His most famous monumental sculptures are the portrait of the famous racehorse Seabiscuit and the portrait of the Jockey George Woolf, both of which are at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California as well as the equestrian statue of Will Rogers at Will Rogers State Park in California. Wheeler’s works were cast by Roman Bronze Works New York, Gorham Co. Foundries NY, Antioch Art Foundry, Antioch College Ohio, California Art Bronze, and Nelli Art Bronze both of California.
