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Lot Essay
The Wampum Traders is a magnificent example of Victor Higgins' unique representations of Native American life in Taos, New Mexico. Painted circa 1917, The Wampum Traders demonstrates Higgins' innovative approach to composition and form in his early years as a member of the esteemed Taos Society of Artists. It was Higgins' innovative and fresh approach in paintings such as The Wampum Traders that would ultimately distinguish him from his contemporaries and set him apart as a master of the New Mexican landscape in an American modern aesthetic.
Following art studies in Chicago and New York, Higgins spent nearly three years studying in Paris and Munich beginning in 1911, where he was exposed to both academic and modern approaches to painting in the the European style and was immersed in the art community there. He left somewhat unsatisfied, however, and returned from Europe the same year that the groundbreaking 1913 Armory Show opened in New York. "The Armory Show reinforced Higgins' disillusion with traditional academic art. Having achieved technical facility as a painter, he needed to search for a focus for his art and develop a valid means of expression. He recognized that he must look to his native country for inspiration: 'An artist cannot be a stranger to a country if he would paint beneath the surface. He must feel the confidence of familiarity if he is to add vitality and originality to the interpretations of his country.'" (P.J., Broder, Taos: A Painter's Dream, New York, 1980, pp. 184-85) The recognition and understanding of this need for enrichment within the United States was fulfilled the following year when Higgins was commissioned by Carter Harrison to travel to New Mexico.
The sundrenched landscape of the canyons and mountains of the New Mexico landscape married with the bright colors of the Native American textiles and adobe houses provided Higgins with the foundation through which to explore his modern tendencies. Perhaps more than any other artist in his circle of the Taos Society, Victor Higgins' depictions of the landscape and people of the Southwest demonstrate an unrivaled knowledge and practice of the most current trends in American and European Modernism. Although The Wampum Traders is a representational image of three Native Americans on horseback, the two central figures brokering a trade, Higgins has limited his palette to emphasize the structural forms of the composition, underscoring the varied textures and planes. He has reduced the picture space to the simple exchange with only minor inclusions of architectural elements to establish the background. Here Higgins uses blocks of color to represent forms and focuses on texture in the scene, using bold, vigorous brushwork to delineate form. As is characteristic of Higgins' finest early works, the artist presents the large figure and his mount in the foreground in a cropped configuration and, as result, creates an intimate scene, establishing the viewer as part of the composition. He staggers the figures, creating a sense of depth which is further accomplished by the adobes in the background.
The Wampum Traders demonstrates Higgins veneration of the Native Americans that lived in and around Taos. They became common subjects for the artist and in the present work, the artist's concern for composition, mature handling of form and layering of colors are fully realized while simultaneously paying tribute to the Native American culture which Higgins so revered.
During his early years in Taos, Higgins kept close ties with the Chicago art community and was committed to bringing his depictions of the far reaches of the Western boundaries to the city. From 1916-19, Higgins submitted his canvases with frequency to juried exhibitions and won a number of awards there. The Wampum Traders was among the works included in these exhibitions. It was perhaps from one of these exhibitions that the work was sold to Ernst Gundlach, a collector and art dealer in the area. In 1940, Gundlach gave the canvas to Winifred Marx, from whom the painting has since descended. Winifred Marx was the daughter of Frank Loesch, the attorney who was president of the Chicago Crime Commission and who enforced tighter restrictions on the gang activity led by Al Capone which ultimately led to the famed mobster's arrest and demise.
On April 15, 1917, the present work was featured as the premier illustration on the cover of the San Francisco Chronicle in association with an article on innately American artistic accomplishments of the Taos Society of Artists. The article notes, "'The Wampum Traders', painted by Victor Higgins is one of the best of the Taos country pictures and is typical of the new realistic and unromantic attitude toward the Indians which the artists have taken and which has won for them great fame for originality." (San Francisco Chronicle, p. 1)
Following art studies in Chicago and New York, Higgins spent nearly three years studying in Paris and Munich beginning in 1911, where he was exposed to both academic and modern approaches to painting in the the European style and was immersed in the art community there. He left somewhat unsatisfied, however, and returned from Europe the same year that the groundbreaking 1913 Armory Show opened in New York. "The Armory Show reinforced Higgins' disillusion with traditional academic art. Having achieved technical facility as a painter, he needed to search for a focus for his art and develop a valid means of expression. He recognized that he must look to his native country for inspiration: 'An artist cannot be a stranger to a country if he would paint beneath the surface. He must feel the confidence of familiarity if he is to add vitality and originality to the interpretations of his country.'" (P.J., Broder, Taos: A Painter's Dream, New York, 1980, pp. 184-85) The recognition and understanding of this need for enrichment within the United States was fulfilled the following year when Higgins was commissioned by Carter Harrison to travel to New Mexico.
The sundrenched landscape of the canyons and mountains of the New Mexico landscape married with the bright colors of the Native American textiles and adobe houses provided Higgins with the foundation through which to explore his modern tendencies. Perhaps more than any other artist in his circle of the Taos Society, Victor Higgins' depictions of the landscape and people of the Southwest demonstrate an unrivaled knowledge and practice of the most current trends in American and European Modernism. Although The Wampum Traders is a representational image of three Native Americans on horseback, the two central figures brokering a trade, Higgins has limited his palette to emphasize the structural forms of the composition, underscoring the varied textures and planes. He has reduced the picture space to the simple exchange with only minor inclusions of architectural elements to establish the background. Here Higgins uses blocks of color to represent forms and focuses on texture in the scene, using bold, vigorous brushwork to delineate form. As is characteristic of Higgins' finest early works, the artist presents the large figure and his mount in the foreground in a cropped configuration and, as result, creates an intimate scene, establishing the viewer as part of the composition. He staggers the figures, creating a sense of depth which is further accomplished by the adobes in the background.
The Wampum Traders demonstrates Higgins veneration of the Native Americans that lived in and around Taos. They became common subjects for the artist and in the present work, the artist's concern for composition, mature handling of form and layering of colors are fully realized while simultaneously paying tribute to the Native American culture which Higgins so revered.
During his early years in Taos, Higgins kept close ties with the Chicago art community and was committed to bringing his depictions of the far reaches of the Western boundaries to the city. From 1916-19, Higgins submitted his canvases with frequency to juried exhibitions and won a number of awards there. The Wampum Traders was among the works included in these exhibitions. It was perhaps from one of these exhibitions that the work was sold to Ernst Gundlach, a collector and art dealer in the area. In 1940, Gundlach gave the canvas to Winifred Marx, from whom the painting has since descended. Winifred Marx was the daughter of Frank Loesch, the attorney who was president of the Chicago Crime Commission and who enforced tighter restrictions on the gang activity led by Al Capone which ultimately led to the famed mobster's arrest and demise.
On April 15, 1917, the present work was featured as the premier illustration on the cover of the San Francisco Chronicle in association with an article on innately American artistic accomplishments of the Taos Society of Artists. The article notes, "'The Wampum Traders', painted by Victor Higgins is one of the best of the Taos country pictures and is typical of the new realistic and unromantic attitude toward the Indians which the artists have taken and which has won for them great fame for originality." (San Francisco Chronicle, p. 1)