Born and living as a youth in Leavenworth, Kansas, John Marchand became a painter, sculptor and prolific illustrator whose work reflected ‘western’ influences. Despite a brief career, he was prolific, completing illustrations for thirty-five books including Girl of the Golden West and Arizona: A Romance of The Great Southwest, written by Augustus Thomas and Cyrus Townsend Brady. Growing up in western frontier country, Marchand had first-hand familiarity with Indian Territory. At age 16, he and his family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota. He studied at the Harwood Art School in Minneapolis, and had a job for the Minneapolis Journal. At age 20, he became staff artist for the New York World.
His artwork is becoming highly collectible; his oil, Pointing the Beef Herd, earned a world record for the artist when it sold for $85,000 at March in Montana in Great Falls on March 16. Marchand died young, at 46, yet he was prolific, with a career that included illustrating approximately 35 books, such as David Belasco’s bestseller Girl of the Golden West. Born in Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1875, he took his firsthand knowledge of the frontier to his New York studio. Marchand knew Charles Schreyvogel, gunfighter-turned-newspaperman Bat Masterson and Westport actor William S. Hart.
https://www.askart.com/artist_bio/John_Norval_Marchand/8646/John_Norval_Marchand.aspx
The Cowboy Artist’s Mentor
Boats Against the Current 