TED LONG 1932 - 2007 Known for both his oil paintings and bronze sculptures, Ted Long worked and lived on the ranch on the North Platte River in Nebraska that his great grandfather homesteaded, and where Long was born and he and his wife raised their four children. Long expressed an interest in art at an early age. “When he was about 12 years old, he cut out a curtain of grandmother’s, stretched it out, and painted on it,” says his daughter, Cathy.
When President Ronald Reagan came to the Long ranch for lunch in 1987, he shook hands with Long and his father, Charles, and is reported to have said he was pleased to shake hands with “real working cowboys.” Reagan’s comment was no doubt very meaningful to Long, as he believed his authentic connection to the land and a working ranch informed his paintings. During that visit, Long presented President Reagan with “The Last Farewell,” a bronze of Buffalo Bill Cody.
In spite of the fact that Long never pursued formal art training, he produced an impressive body of work that brought him national acclaim. The work he produced, in a cabin more than a century old that he moved from Wyoming to his ranch and in the elaborate pit blind he built on the River that included a kitchen and studio, eventually found its way into the collections of John Wayne, George Montgomery, Henry Fonda, Ken Curtis, Amanda Blake, and Ben Johnson, to name a few.
Perhaps the two sculptures dearest to Long were his bust of Ponca Chief Standing Bear, in the Nebraska Capitol building’s Hall of Fame, and his “Defenders of Liberty” sculpture at the entrance to the 20th Century Veterans Memorial in North Platte. Long, a Korean War army veteran himself, said he carried the idea for the “Defenders of Liberty” sculpture, which features three Korean War soldiers, “in his head” for decades.
According to Long’s children, his career took off when he met John Wayne while showing his work in New Mexico galleries. “John Wayne was working on the movie The Cowboys in New Mexico at the time. Mom and Dad saw him on the street. Dad took him photos of his work, and John Wayne wrote him a check that day. From there, it took off for Dad,” says his son Tom.
While prints of Long’s paintings are readily available, his original oil paintings are harder to come by. As for his bronzes, according to his daughter Michaelene, “The bronze molds were all destroyed so what there is, is what there is.”
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