John Marcellus Moore, who signed his paintings: "Tex Moore" alongside his mark of a steer skull, was known as the "Official Cowboy Artist of the Lone Star State." The painting is signed and dated in the lower left corner: "Tex Moore, 1939" above his steer skull mark. He worked as a trail scout and was a self taught painter. He is listed in Dawdy, Samuels and Whos Who. He exhibited at the Annual Exhibition by Texas Artists at the Fort Worth Art Museum and at the Fort Worth Frontier Centennial in the mid 1930's. Moore painted in Texas, Wyoming, Colorado and Montana. The Santa Fe Railroad and the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, in Canyon, Texas, own examples of his work.