El Sangre de Cristo Mountains

Victor Higgins moved to Taos, New Mexico, in 1914, and his fascination with the natural and architectural landscape of the region inspired his work for the rest of his career. When John Marin arrived in the Southwest in June 1929, his modern techniques in watercolor invigorated the local artistic community and likely inspired Higgins to further explore the medium. In April 1931, Higgins had his first exhibition of watercolors at the Chester H. Johnson Galleries, Chicago, in a show which included the present work. These watercolors, as exemplified by El Sangre de Cristo Mountains, are “characterized by their close relationship to nature” and “reveal an artist who tended to be very specific about what is included on his sheet. He paid particular attention to the feathery softness of spruce, the textured surfaces of adobe…The moods of nature dominate these watercolors.” (D.A. Porter, Victor Higgins: An American Master, exhibition catalogue, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1991, p. 155)

Higgins’ use of mirroring curvilinear forms and broad areas of color create a sense of abstraction, which makes his depictions of the landscape thoroughly modern. Dean A. Porter writes, “Higgins’s watercolors are beautifully composed. Rounded, lyrical forms are arranged to activate the surface of the coarsely textured sheets with clouds, mountain tops, hills, and trees forming interacting curving patterns…He covered the entire dry sheet with washes of pigment. As C.J. Bulliet stated: ‘Higgins does not leave his watercolor pictures ‘sketchy’ in the sense of being unfinished. He takes care to complete a picture, just as he does in oils.’” (Victor Higgins: An American Master, p. 156)