Peter Hurd maintained a successful art career while also managing his ranch in New Mexico. He favored the traditional egg tempera technique, mixing natural pigments with yolks from the eggs of his own chickens. This painting was commissioned by the California Gold Label Beer company, “to dramatize and project the spirit… . . . of the West.” Hurd was well suited to the job, as, according to Life magazine, he had “the hands of a cowboy and the keen eyes of an artist.”