^Lot 490 Original Oil on Board.

By Sam Savitt, titled "Taps", depicting young girl on horse. Signed lower right, dated '73. Measures 17" x 18 1/2". De-accessioned by The George Phippen Art Museum. Sam Savitt got his first assignment for Dell Comics from Western Printing in 1951 where a line of comics for Gene Autry's horse Champion had already been started. With two issues out, Dell hired Sam to do the cover for Champion number three. He would go on to paint twenty-six covers. Savitt freelanced from home, and he usually had one or two gouache covers to do simultaneously, averaging fifteen a year. Sam's paintings were on the covers of such titles as INDIAN CHIEF, BEN BOWIE, RED RYDER'S RANCH COMICS, and WESTERN ROUND UP. Sam painted one CISCO KID cover, one ROY ROGERS cover and three LONE RANGER covers. He also painted covers for WALT DISNEY movie comics: STORMY, PAUL REVERE'S RIDE and THE SCARECROW. Sam was also a natural choice to paint covers featuring the work of western authors ZANE GREY, MAX BRAND and LUKE SHORT. Savitt did not differentiate commercial art from easel art, because for him they were the same thing. He viewed all of his work as fine art. Savitt earned a reputation as one of this country's finest equestrian artists.