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拍品專文
In his finest works, Eanger Irving Couse depicts the ceremonies and rituals of Native Americans with a unique degree of sincerity and reverence. The War Dance, painted in 1903, is a wonderful example of the artist's oeuvre. According to an inscription by the artist’s son on the reverse, The War Dance is one of the first works Couse painted in Taos, making it an important early example of his portrayals of southwestern Native American life.
From his earliest days as an artist, Couse sketched Native American subjects, starting with the Chippewa and Ojibwa tribes of his birthplace, Saginaw, Michigan. While still a teenager, he began his formal studies, first at the Chicago Art Institute and later at the National Academy of Design in New York. In 1886 he traveled to Paris, where he enrolled in the Académie Julian under the tutelage of the celebrated academician, William Adolphe Bouguereau. In 1889, while in Paris, he married fellow art student Virginia Walker, a rancher's daughter from Washington near the Oregon border. Two years later, they traveled together to the Walker family's ranch in Klikitat County for a year-long visit. While there, Couse painted members of the Klikitat, Yakima, and Umatilla tribes and produced his first oils of Native Americans.
Couse permanently returned to the United States in 1898 and settled in New York. Most likely at the recommendation of his friend and fellow artist Ernest Blumenschein, Couse traveled west to Taos in 1902 and arrived in June during an unseasonable snow storm. "When the curtain of snow lifted Couse saw for the first time the copper colored Indian he had been looking for, the vast intense blue of the New Mexican sky, a valley and mountains more beautiful, more perfect, than he had ever dreamed existed. He saw, too, the quaintly old-world town of San Fernando de Taos." (L.M. Bickerstaff, Pioneer Artists of Taos, Denver, Colorado, 1983, p. 79) The Pueblo culture in Taos continued to flourish relatively undisturbed and its people still practiced many of their centuries-old customs and rituals. Couse was mesmerized by the local tribesman, taking them as his primary subject for the remainder of his career.
The War Dance, impressive in its scale, manifests the dignity and quiet spirituality that Couse appreciated in Native American culture. The figures in The War Dance appear undisturbed by Couse's presence as they go about their ritual with intent and fixed gazes. The War Dance is a significant early work that demonstrates Couse's goal of depicting his favorite subject in the most direct and honest way. "More than in any other aspect except color, Couse was interested in the authenticity of the Indian he was to paint. The more tenaciously they clung to the customs of their forebears, the more genuine they, and therefore the pictures of them, would be." (Pioneer Artists of Taos, p. 80)
Virginia Couse Leavitt writes, "His model for the central figure in this painting was exceptionally tall and handsome Indian known to him as 'Big John.'...To convey the significance of this dance in which each warrior searches for his inner strength, Couse placed the figures in isolation, each absorbed in the ceremony. The central figure is turned toward the viewer, but his expression is one of total concentration, his body wrapped in the rhythm of his dance steps." At some later date the title of the work was changed to War Dance at Glorietta, which as Virginia Leavitt writes was "a reference to the location of a sacred grove of trees north of Taos Pueblo."
This painting will be included in Virginia Couse Leavitt's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.
From his earliest days as an artist, Couse sketched Native American subjects, starting with the Chippewa and Ojibwa tribes of his birthplace, Saginaw, Michigan. While still a teenager, he began his formal studies, first at the Chicago Art Institute and later at the National Academy of Design in New York. In 1886 he traveled to Paris, where he enrolled in the Académie Julian under the tutelage of the celebrated academician, William Adolphe Bouguereau. In 1889, while in Paris, he married fellow art student Virginia Walker, a rancher's daughter from Washington near the Oregon border. Two years later, they traveled together to the Walker family's ranch in Klikitat County for a year-long visit. While there, Couse painted members of the Klikitat, Yakima, and Umatilla tribes and produced his first oils of Native Americans.
Couse permanently returned to the United States in 1898 and settled in New York. Most likely at the recommendation of his friend and fellow artist Ernest Blumenschein, Couse traveled west to Taos in 1902 and arrived in June during an unseasonable snow storm. "When the curtain of snow lifted Couse saw for the first time the copper colored Indian he had been looking for, the vast intense blue of the New Mexican sky, a valley and mountains more beautiful, more perfect, than he had ever dreamed existed. He saw, too, the quaintly old-world town of San Fernando de Taos." (L.M. Bickerstaff, Pioneer Artists of Taos, Denver, Colorado, 1983, p. 79) The Pueblo culture in Taos continued to flourish relatively undisturbed and its people still practiced many of their centuries-old customs and rituals. Couse was mesmerized by the local tribesman, taking them as his primary subject for the remainder of his career.
The War Dance, impressive in its scale, manifests the dignity and quiet spirituality that Couse appreciated in Native American culture. The figures in The War Dance appear undisturbed by Couse's presence as they go about their ritual with intent and fixed gazes. The War Dance is a significant early work that demonstrates Couse's goal of depicting his favorite subject in the most direct and honest way. "More than in any other aspect except color, Couse was interested in the authenticity of the Indian he was to paint. The more tenaciously they clung to the customs of their forebears, the more genuine they, and therefore the pictures of them, would be." (Pioneer Artists of Taos, p. 80)
Virginia Couse Leavitt writes, "His model for the central figure in this painting was exceptionally tall and handsome Indian known to him as 'Big John.'...To convey the significance of this dance in which each warrior searches for his inner strength, Couse placed the figures in isolation, each absorbed in the ceremony. The central figure is turned toward the viewer, but his expression is one of total concentration, his body wrapped in the rhythm of his dance steps." At some later date the title of the work was changed to War Dance at Glorietta, which as Virginia Leavitt writes was "a reference to the location of a sacred grove of trees north of Taos Pueblo."
This painting will be included in Virginia Couse Leavitt's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.