In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, paintings, drawings, prints and photos depicting the American West made our region world-famous, turning the mountains and high deserts into celebrity locales familiar around the world. This art was produced by homegrown talent as well as a legion of artists who flocked to the area. Denver's premier purveyor of the resulting material is David Cook Galleries, a pair of linked storefronts with one given over to Western art, the other to Native American art. Cook features the all-stars of New Mexico and Colorado, with work by the Taos group, the giants of the Broadmoor Academy, and on and on. Fair warning: Their work has been collected for generations, so if you have to ask how much something costs, you can't afford it.
Readers' Choice: American Museum of Western Art