Horses in the Art of Jo Mora - Spring 2008 Issue of Horses in Art Magazine

Horses in the Art of Jo Mora

by Peter Hiller

Illustration by Jo Mora in his children’s book Budgee Budgee Cottontail. It is available through www.globepequot.com.
In spite of growing up in the Boston area, Joseph Jacinto Mora (1876-1947) was hooked on everything western, including horses, from the time he saw Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show as a young child in the late 1800s. Engaged in the creation of art almost from birth, Joseph Mora’s childhood sketches depict horses as an intricate part of his drawings of cowboys and Indians.

This intense interest in the aura of the west prompted Joseph Mora (Jo) to journey west after honing his artistic skills under the guidance of his father, Domingo, a sculptor of Catalonian decent, and after assimilating the knowledge of several other prominent art teachers on the East Coast. Jo’s talent at both drawing and sculpting would provide the means to his livelihood. He eventually married and raised two children after moving permanently to California.

In spite of being a lover of books, Jo was not one to gather his understanding of a subject from the stacks of a library. He experienced the life of the vaqueros and cowboys first hand, spending months on working ranches and weeks on horseback touring various places in California and Arizona.

Prior to settling down, Jo spent over two months riding horseback from San Diego to San Jose, California, following Father Junipero Serra’s mission trail. This journey in 1903 began by getting on a boat with his horse in Santa Barbara to sail down to San Diego to start the excursion. Among the notable moments on the trip, in addition to constantly looking for reasonably priced feed was the overnight adventure of tracking and finding his horse that had broken loose from his tether.

Jo also lived for three years, from1904 to1907, with the Hopi and Navajo Indians in Arizona. His intent was always to blend in and not impose. During this time, he included horses in drawings and watercolors often depicting their role in Indian culture.

From these experiences Jo competently reproduced precise moments and deliberate actions of horsemen. The titles of many of his works indicate an exact action – Straight Up and Scratching and Tailing the Steer – that Jo had observed and most likely tried himself.

A detail of Evolution of the Cowboy – Illustration created by Jo Mora for the official poster of the California Rodeo of Salinas. Joseph Jacinto Mora (1876-1947) was an illustrator, sculptor, author and cowboy.

One of Mora’s well-known artistic creations was the Evolution of the Cowboy poster, which he created for the Salinas Rodeo in California. Sometimes referred to as the Sweetheart of the Rodeo poster, the image shows much of the history of western horsemanship in a single composition. Using his playful animation style of illustration, the poster features horseback riders from various American historical periods with drawings of different types of saddles, tack and rodeo events. On occasion, his son posed with their horses and Jo used his own gear for references photos.

Jo always found a way to include horses in his art. He depicted stylized horses painted on wooden murals as part of a jousting match based on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales that is now located in the auditorium at Holy Names College in Oakland, California. He also featured two very cartoon-style horses in the children’s book he wrote and illustrated, Budgee Budgee Cottontail.

No longer in print, Jo also wrote and illustrated two other books on the American West – Trail Dust and Saddle Leather and Californios in the 1940s. Each of these volumes continues to be revered as among the most accurate and accessible books on the life of the cowboy, the intricacies of horsemanship, and the history of the vaqueros ever written and published. The fact that Jo could sit down and write them, according to his son, Jo Jr., almost in a single sitting from memory is a testament to the depth of his understanding of the subject.

Jo Mora’s love of history and unfailing awareness of the role that horses played in our past account for his repeated sensitivity to them through his captivating artwork.

The best public site for seeing Jo’s work is the Monterey Maritime and History Museum, Monterey, California.

Author Peter Hiller is an art teacher at All Saints’ Episcopal Day School in Carmel, California, a position he has held for over 27 years. He is also the Jo Mora Trust Collection Curator and strives to bring the artistic legacy of Jo Mora to the attention of the public. For more information email him at philler@asds.org.

~ Back ~