2019 Coeur d’Alene Art Auction / Lot 207202 / 328 • View Catalog •
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VERSO
A copy of the 1989 Bill of Sale
Exhibition label, Desert Caballeros Western Museum, Wickenburg, AZ
Laramie Jarvi wrote, “The above described Edgar Payne original has been the property of my family since 1943. Mr. Payne gave the painting to my Father, Leon Hugh ‘Cozy’ McSparron as a gift. This took place at the Casa Linda Hotel in Gallup, New Mexico. Mr. Payne had many of his paintings on display at this hotel. Though the painting was a gift it did bear the price of $300. Edgar Payne was a long time friend of my father, and a frequent guest in our home, The Thunderbird Ranch in Chinle, Arizona.”
According to Peter Hassrick in Edgar Payne: The Scenic Journey, “Often Payne incorporated Navajo Riders into his mesa landscapes. His painting Burning the Hogan was created for the Leon McSparron family, who operated the Thunderbird Ranch near Canyon de Chelly. In it Payne offered an unusual narrative component. A gentle reminder of a perceived passing culture, the oil portrays three riders looking back over their shoulders at a twilight horizon. A column of smoke rises from the base of a rock escarpment as a hogan burns in the distance. The Navajo had a custom that when a man died in his hogan, he would be cremated there by his family and friends. For Payne, this was no rhetorical gesture; it was heartfelt revery that deserved what was, for him, a rare narrative portrayal.”
PROVENANCE
The Artist
Leon Hugh McSparron, Chinle, AZ 1943
Laramie Jarvi, by descent
Arizona West Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ 1989
Private Collection, Boston, MA
EXHIBITED
Desert Caballeros Western Museum, Wickenburg, AZ, Feb 7 - Apr 19, 2004
Edgar Payne: The Scenic Journey:
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA, Feb 11 - May 6, 2012;
Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena, CA, June 3 - Oct 14, 2012;
Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK, Dec 1, 2012 - Mar 24, 2013
LITERATURE
Scott A. Shields and Patricia Trenton, Edgar Payne: The Scenic Journey (Petaluma, CA: Pomegranate Communications, Inc., 2012), p 206, illustrated
