VERSO
Signed and titled
Label, Autry National Center, Los Angeles, California
Label, Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Proceeds from this sale will benefit the Art Acquisition Fund for the Autry Museum of the American West.

Elmer Kelton wrote, “Early contacts between white men and the Plains Indians were usually friendly, or at least benign. The first newcomers were usually explorers, like Lewis and Clark, looking for trails, not trouble. They were soon followed by traders and trappers, the storied mountain men, who cut new trails of their own or mastered old trails established by the Indians. In the beginning, these bearded white men tended to establish alliances with various tribes. Some lifelong friendships were born. For furs and woman-tanned buffalo robes, they traded beads and mirrors, flint and steel, blankets, muskets, and powder. Many married Indian women, some out of genuine love, others for convenience and to solidify their position with their chosen tribes.

“Strife arose as allegiances to one tribe automatically made them enemies of others, and as they began to hunt and trap on jealously guarded grounds. Some of it came out of competition between fur-trading companies, one agitating its allied Indians to war against the men who trapped for another.

“This painting depicts two men of different races riding together as friends and partners in the cold light of the Rocky Mountain high country.”

The artist wrote, “The Crow People were active players and prospered in the fur trade. They welcomed the small parties of white trappers and traders into their camps, and they served as middlemen between the whites and the other tribes who wanted to trade. The fur trade was the vanguard of westward expansion for half a century, until the beaver became scarce.”

PROVENANCE
Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles, California

EXHIBITED
Gilcrease Rendezvous, Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1985
Howard Terpning: Tribute to the Plains People, Autry National Center, Los Angeles, California, 2012

LITERATURE
Don Dedera, Howard Terpning: The Storyteller, The Greenwich Workshop Press, 1989, pp. 86-87, illustrated
Elmer Kelton, The Art of Howard Terpning, The Greenwich Workshop Press, 1992, pp. 118-19, illustrated
Don Hedgpeth, Howard Terpning: Spirit of the Plains People, The Greenwich Workshop Press, 2001, pp. 58-59, illustrated
Harley Brown, Terpning: Tribute to the Plains People, The Greenwich Workshop Press, 2012, p. 58, illustrated

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.