Thoroughbred Horse 1940 by Ada (Kruse) Ducker - Exhibited Nevada State Museum

Description

Gorgeous horse portrait by Ada Ducker Kruse a Santa Cruz artist (American, 1900-1995), 1947-1948. Signed and dated lower right corner … more Gorgeous horse portrait by Ada Ducker Kruse a Santa Cruz artist (American, 1900-1995), 1947-1948. Signed and dated lower right corner "Ada Ducker "1940". Presented in vintage giltwood frame.
Signed lower right "ADA DUCKER 1940" (Ada Ducker Kruse) "Nevada State Museum" upper left on verso.
Image size: 20"H x 24"W.
Frame, 23.5"H x 27.5"W x 1.5"D

Born in New York on July 28, 1900. In 1936 she married Edward Augustus Ducker a Nevada District Attorney and Nevada Supreme Court Justice (D. 1946). Kruse was her fathers birth name and he was adopted by a Danish family named Bielenberg. While living in Riverside, CA in the 1940s, Kruse began painting at age 12, and later painted portraits of stallions, among them "Seabiscuit" and Louis B. Mayer's "Alibhai" (MGM Studios)." Her married name was Gibeau at the time of her death in Santa Cruz, CA in 1995. She painted several great racing sires for Charles Howard (Seabiscuit and Sabu) and in the mid 1940s she commanded $5000 commissions and painted many of the great racing sires standing at stud in California.
Charles S. Howard of Seabiscuit fame and the Ridgewood Ranch Howard owned.
By the time Charles S. Howard came to own the ranch in 1919, he was a multimillionaire automobile magnate. He arrived in San Francisco some 16 years prior with just 21 cents in his pocket. Howard loved the Ranch. He was a “hands-on” owner who surveyed his spread atop a cow pony. Cattle, sheep, horses, vegetable garden, fruit orchards, and a dairy were all part of Howard’s thriving Ranch operation. The cattle round-ups were held annually and were magnificent events that involved Ranch employees, their families and friends, and many neighbors from nearby ranches. After the work was done everyone celebrated by enjoying the delicious barbecue. less