Sculptor Joseph Boulton, born Joseph Lorkowski in Fort Worth, Texas in 1896 captured animals in their most "characteristic attitudes and movements…no creature…too small to command his attention" (Beatrice Gilman Proske, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture (1968), p. 385).
The artist acquired an interest in sculpture at the early age of three when he began modeling the clay from the riverbanks near his house. When his father died in 1909, Joseph Lorkowski, who was only 13, took over his father's contracting business to support his family. Once they were financially stable, Joseph Boulton traveled east to New York from his home in Fort Worth, Texas to pursue a career in art. He began at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League. Later he went on to study under the celebrated sculptor H.A. MacNeil at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, also in New York.
With the outbreak of the First World War Joseph Lorkowski enlisted in the army and suffered an injury. Back home his impaired health forced him to seek medical aid, and his doctor, recognizing the young man's needs and artistic talent, adopted his patient. Joseph Lorkowski became Joseph Boulton, and was able to gain back his health and flourish as an artist in a home in Connecticut.
The free and untamed surroundings of his home gave Boulton constant inspiration and exposure to wildlife. In his sculpture he captured with striking accuracy not only the animal's physiology, but also its individuality. As a sculptor he is recognized for his sympathetic and ennobling depictions of animals and people, especially Native Americans.
Private Collection, Newtown, CT