John Howard Martin (1853-1919) Return from the Hunt signed 'J.H. Martin' (lower left) oil on canvas 33 x 54in framed 46 x 66in Footnotes: Provenance Property of Marilyn Weiker, daughter of Fred Rosenstock, Palos Verdes, California. John Howard Martin was a Western artist working in Reno and Denver. Relatively obscure today, he was a well-respected artist in his day, and was even compared to Frederic Remington by contemporary art critics. Known as 'The Prospector Painter' because he prospected during summers in the Nevada hills while also painting, his Death Valley, Lake Tahoe, desert, cattle, and Indian subjects, such as the present painting, were widely collected in the Reno area. Return from the Hunt is an ambitious composition featuring a large group of Plains Braves, women and their horses returning to a multi tepee encampment after a hunting expedition. Tragically, by the time Martin had reached his 60s, he had difficulty selling his work and was penniless. He died from a self-inflected gunshot wound at his Reno studio in July 1919.