Description:

Franz Trevors (American, 1907-1980) Carmel, California, mountain landscape with trees, graphite on paper, 1929
Signed and dated lower right.

Biography from The Russell: Sale to Benefit the CM Russell Museum

Texas muralist Franz Trevor's oil painting The Bucker is one of five murals commissioned in 1944 by the Palace Club of Reno, NV, to decorate its walls. Trevors modeled all five of his large-scale works after compositions from well-known paintings by his hero, Charles M. Russell. The Bucker is closely based on Russell's 1894 watercolor A Bucking Bronco, published in an 1895 advertisement for the Minneapolis seed company Northrup, Braslan, Goodwin. Trevors perfectly captures the spirit and tradition of Russell's image, but he adds his own personal touch with a detail not present in the master's original version. In Trevors' painting, the horse is spooked by a terrified rabbit dashing out from a clump of sagebrush. Trevors' use of the rabbit is reminiscent of a similar device appearing in Russell's 1924 painting Bruin, Not Bunny, Turned the Leaders (Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa), further evidence of Trevor's serious study of his idol's work.

However, just like Russell's cowboy, Trevors' rider is challenged to keep his seat as the animal twists in the air in a bucking pattern known as "weaving." Russell produced a number of works showing "weavers"—the earliest a watercolor called Bronco Buster from about 1890 and, more famously, The Bucker [A Weaver], a watercolor reproduced on a billboard for the Heptol Splits company at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 and a year later appearing on the company's promotional metal beer trays. Russell also modeled the subject for a bronze sculpture variously titled Bucking Broncho [sic] or A Weaver in 1911.

Although little information survives about the life and work of Franz Trevors, quite a lot is known about the Palace Club where The Bucker hung from 1944 to 1979 (when the casino was demolished). Until the 1950s, Reno was the gambling capital of the United States and the Palace one of the town's hot spots. Owned by the Petricciani family, it was licensed first as the Palace Cigar Store and then as the Palace Bar until 1934 when the family, encouraged by the legalization of open gambling, licensed the full casino as the Palace Club. Operated until 1943 by Silvo Petricciani, the "best craps dealer in town," the property was next leased to the colorful Ernie Primm and his partners, who commissioned Trevors to produce the five large mural paintings based on Russell.

An unusual work with a fascinating history, The Bucker blends the best of the Western art tradition represented by Russell with the colorful gambling history of "The Biggest Little City in the World."

  • Dimensions: 24"H x 19 1/2"W (sight), 31 1/2"H x 25 1/2"W (frame)

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October 29, 2025 3:00 PM EDT
Indianapolis, IN, US

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