Nick Eggenhofer (1897-1985)
At the height of his career, Nick Eggenhofer was known as the “King of the Pulps” for his western dry-brush illustrations. No one could touch him for the authenticity and raw honesty of his subjects. As a young immigrant from Germany, he had steeped himself in the lore of the frontier West, accumulating guns, chaps, Indian headdresses and other props, even building models of everything from stagecoaches to ore wagons to ensure accuracy in his work.
From his studio in New Jersey, he produced thousands of western vignettes in black and white dry-brush for Street and Smith and other pulp publishers from the 1920s through the 40s.
Eventually, he settled in Wyoming and continued to produce highly esteemed watercolors and oils for the Western galleries up to the end of his career, but he never surpassed the vigor of his earlier work.
Eggenhofer’s work is in several museum collections of western art, and received the National Cowboy Hall of Fame Trustees Award for Outstanding Contribution to Western Art in 1973.
P4A acknowledges the assistance of Illustration House, Inc. in preparing this reference note.