Tom Ryan (1922-2011)
The Big Gather (Four Sixes)
oil on board
24 x 48 inches
35 x 59 inches (frame)
signed lower right: Tom Ryan
verso: label, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum October 13-December 31, 2001 "The Brotherhood of Man: Tom Ryan and the Cowboys of the 6666 Ranch"

George Humphreys, Four Sixes Ranch foreman, was a legend, as he had cowboyed a lifetime on the Sixes. Before his teenage years, he experienced seeing Quannah Parker, the great Comanche chief, at the lead of a long trailing of his tribe in colorful regalia coming into the headquarters of the Four Sixes. They had trailed down to King County, Texas from the reservation in Oklahoma. Quannah and Burk Burnett, owner of the Sixes, were good friends. This was a celebration of that friendship. There were many beeves on spits in the Indian encampment.

“The year is 1968. George had informed me that there was going to be a big gathering of cattle in the Pitchfork Flats area on the 6666 Ranch. This would be the last opportunity to participate in a large gathering of cattle to be worked in the old ways. To do a painting in the scope of The Big Gather would take weeks of work, therefore I was as thorough as possible, giving my utmost attention to every activity that transpired. There were 78 cowboys scattered around the chuck wagon in the lamp light of the early morning breakfast. While the cowboys were eating, the wrangler was gathering the remuda from the two-section horse pasture. We heard the horses coming in, then the lively voice of the wagon boss broke off the chattering amongst the cowboys: “Horses, cowboys, horses.” Coming out from under the tent cover over the wagon area, I felt a slight chill in the morning air. We were still in partial daylight.

Within minutes, the remuda was in a rope corral where the cowboys stretched their ropes from one cowboy to the next in a surround of the remuda. Cowboys called out the names of their horses, and top hands went into the remuda roping the horses called for. The first cowboys to get horseback were those who had to lope to holding pens where the cattle had been rounded up the day before. These had to be trailed to the gathering area.

As I rode over to Pitchfork Flats, I was beginning to feel the excitement of The Big Gather. The first bunches of cattle had come in from the closer holding pens. Cowboys had surrounded and were holding these cattle as another drive was coming off the mesa in the distance. Yet another bunch was coming in from the opposite direction and other drives would be coming in shortly. The working of over twenty-five hundred head of cattle would be commencing within the hour. Witnessing top cutting horses and cowboys do their chores in a herd of this immense proportion is a rare sight to behold. The bawling of cattle in a herd this size is profound. The wrangler had moved the remuda closer to the cutting grounds so that any change of horses would be convenient.

The early morning haze had prevailed but a short while: the sun was now occasionally breaking through the continual stream of passing clouds. The cook had moved the wagon in for the noon meal; later he would set up camp a short distance away.” – Tom Ryan

EXHIBITION
National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, "The Brotherhood of Man: Tom Ryan and the Cowboys of the 6666 Ranch", October 13-December 31, 2001

LITERATURE
Susan Hallsten McGarry, "Tom Ryan and the Cowboys of the 6666 Ranch", National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, 2001, pg. 9.

The painting appears to be in good condition. Under UV examination, there is no evidence of restoration or inpainting.