Cattle Country

Gordon Louis Mortensen

In 1903, the United States acquired the land known as the Dakota Territory in the Louisiana Purchase and Theodore Roosevelt first visited North Dakota to hunt bison. With his color woodcut Cattle Country, Mortensen depicts a portion of the Missouri Plateau, the state’s highest region. This area includes the Badlands, a stone valley carved for centuries by wind and water into pyramids and buttes. The view is breathtaking as Mortensen has mastered the technique of layering colors to provide depth, delicacy, shadow, and light.

Gordon Mortensen commented on the process he uses:

"Only one woodblock is used. On it an image is drawn in India ink. Before the first color is printed, any areas that are to remain unprinted (white or the color of the paper) are cut away from the surface of the block. Then an oil base ink is used to print the first color on all of the sheets of paper that are to be used for the edition and proofs. After the first printing the block is again cut, removing any surface of the block that is to remain the first color in the finished print. After each subsequent color is printed, the block is cut, the process continues until the print is finished and most of the surface of the block is cut away."