This pastel on canvas painting titled, "The Buckaroo" was created in 1935 by Adelaide Hiebel for the Gerlach Barklow Calendar Company. It is large, at 30 x 40 inches. This image was so popular in the 1930's that Gerlach Barklow also featured it in the 1952 calendar line. Many of her works have an "americana" theme, as she was especially talented at capturing images of what was going on in the country at the time. Adults of all ages can relate to this image, which inspires childhood memories.
Adelaide Hiebel was born in New Hope, Wisconsin in 1886. Her father was a prominent tailor in Waterloo, and she became an expert seamstress. By age 11, she had been given a box of pastels, and had fallen in love with this medium. She attended the Art Institute in Chicago. Hiebel opened a studio in Waterloo, Wisconsin. There, she met Zula Kenyon, an already successful illustration artist with the Gerlach Barklow Calendar Company in Joliet, Illinois. Kenyon became Hiebel's mentor. Kenyon's health was forcing her to retire and move to the west coast. She recommended to Theodore Gerlach that her good friend, Adelaide Hiebel become her replacement. Hiebel's early work is much like that of Kenyon's artwork. In order to retain the customers that had grown accustomed to Kenyon's work, they wanted Hiebel's early work to resemble that of Kenyon. The majority of images were very large at 30 x 40 inches and were done in pastels. Hiebel worked with live models, as well as from photographs.
Hiebel eventually moved her studio to her home in Joliet. Her artistic range was excellent, rendering paintings of landscapes, children, and beautiful women. Hiebel's Indian maiden subjects are highly collectible and thought by many to be her best works. Indian maiden subjects were very popular with other illustration artists as well, and vintage calendars with this subject matter by any known illustration artists are desirable. Unlike many of her peers, Adelaide Hiebel purchased many of her paintings from the calendar company after they were no longer being used by the company. It is not known what happened to the paintings she owned after her death.
Upon her retirement, Hiebel moved to California. Adelaide Hiebel passed away in 1965 in Santa Anna, California.
