Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 54

Grant Speed
(1930-2011)
John Wayne 33in high

8 February 2019, 12:00 PST
Los Angeles

Sold for US$8,750 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our California Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

Grant Speed (1930-2011)

John Wayne
inscribed 'UG Speed © CA / 1983' (on the base) and '20/40' (along the base)
bronze with dark brown patina
33in high
Modeled in 1983.

Footnotes

Provenance
Texas Art Gallery, Dallas, Texas.
Acquired by the late owner from the above, 1984.

Literature
S.H. McGarry, Honoring The Western Tradition: The L.D. "Brink" Brinkman Collection, Kerrville, Texas, 2003, p. 158, illustrated.

The artist was a great admirer of the actor, John Wayne, pictured here as the subject of the present work. Grant Speed once told L.D. Brinkman in a letter, "John Wayne was more than an actor and a celebrity. To me he was an outstanding man. He seemed to bring out the best in people and to be a man who could inspire them to have more confidence in themselves, people around them, and this country. He is a person I've always wanted to do in bronze, and when I received the commission to do 'John Wayne' I was very pleased, because to me, he typified the real red-blooded American Hero on and off the screen."1

1 Grant Speed, unpublished letter, 29 January 1991.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

David Howard Hitchcock(1861-1943)Hawaiian Forest 16 x 12 in. (40.6 x 30.5 cm)

SUSAN HERTEL(1930-1992)Night Corall II 49 1/4 x 80 1/2 in. (125.0 x 204.4 cm.)

NICOLAI FECHIN(1881-1955)Carmen (Head of a Girl) sheet 18 x 13 1/4 in. (45.7 x 33.6 cm.)

Edward Rohn Indian Head #50, Mexican Head #50(Two) each height 13inIndian Head #50, Mexican Head #50 (Two)

JOHN POON(B. 1962)Landscape with tree 11 x 14 in.

JOHN POON(B. 1962)Red Rock Morning 10 x 12 in.

ALBERT GEORGE HANDELL(B. 1937)River Landscape 18 x 24 in.

ELIAS RIVERA(1937-2019)Familiar Tranquility 42 x 32 in.

GENE HACKMAN(1930-2025)After Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890)The Starry Night 16 x 19 1/4 in.

YVONNE CHENG(B. 1941)Portrait of a Seated Nude sight 37 x 26 in.

DAN OSTERMILLER(B. 1956)Bodacious 8 3/4 in. high Modeled and cast in 1991.