Born:
1874
Massachusetts

Died:
1848
Phoenix, Arizona

Biography:
Born near Boston, Massachusetts, Robert Farrington Elwell sketched at Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show when he was a "Boston Globe" newspaper artist in the 1890s, and this assignment set the course of his painting career. He was so fascinated that he attended all the performances.

Cody was so impressed with Elwell's talents that he invited him to spend summers at Cody's Wyoming ranch, the T E, where he could have plenty of sketching subject matter. In 1896, he became ranch manager, a job he held for 25 years that included increased management of Cody's affairs. He also did paintings for magazine illustrations and calendars, and at the ranch met the great western personalities of the day--Frederic Remington, Diamond Jim Brady, Theodore Roosevelt, Annie Oakley, and Sioux tribal chief Iron Tail, who made him a member of the Sioux tribe.

As an artist, he was self-taught, and showed early sketching ability which earned him magazine commissions for his western sketches from his youth. He spent time in Wickenburg, Arizona, painting illustrations for Little Brown & Company, and his last years, he lived in Phoenix. Although he lived most of his life in the West, he retained his Boston accent and mannerisms.