195

VERSO
Signed and titled
Label, Cowboy Artists of America Museum, Kerrville, Texas

Terpning biographer Elmer Kelton wrote, “The woman’s place in Plains Indian culture included most of the drudgery involved in setting up camp, the skinning, tanning, putting up of meat, cooking, water-carrying, wood-gathering, sewing, housekeeping, and, of course, childbearing and rearing. Yet as homemaker, wife, and mother, she was an indispensable part of tribal life.

“Though her life in retrospect may seem mundane, Charles Alexander Eastman, Sioux physician-historian, declared, ‘It has been said that the position of woman is the test of civilization, and that of our women was secure. In them was vested our standard of morals and the purity of our blood. The wife did not take the name of her husband nor enter his clan, and the children belonged to the clan of the mother. All of the family property was held by her, descent was traced in the maternal line, and the honor of the house was in her hands.’”

PROVENANCE
Red McCombs Collection, San Antonio, Texas

EXHIBITED
Cowboy Artists of America Museum, Kerrville, Texas, 1984-85

LITERATURE
Don Dedera, Howard Terpning: The Storyteller, The Greenwich Workshop Press, 1989, p. 140-41, illustrated

Condition ReportSurface is in excellent condition. No signs of restoration.

Important Notice: Statements of condition are provided as a service to potential bidders; such statements are educated opinions and should not be regarded as facts. The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction has no responsibility for any errors or omissions.