239

The Signal-Fire will be included in Michael R. Grauer’s forthcoming W. Herbert Dunton Catalogue Raisonné.

According to art historian Michael R. Grauer, “The Signal-Fire was reproduced as the frontispiece for Scribner’s, vol. LIII, May 1913. From about 1909 to 1918, Dunton became a plein-air painter. After first visiting Taos in 1912 and moving there permanently in 1915, he set out from his studio with stretched canvases, a few horses, and models to pose them in the Taos desert. The resulting paintings depict a single American Indian or cowboy, or groups of Indians or cowboys, standing on a small hill, and typically in profile to the viewer. Oftentimes Dunton places a horse with its hindquarters toward the view – as seen in The Signal-Fire – to lead the viewer’s eye into the scene. In The Signal-Fire he created a pyramid with the mass of the mounted warrior in the bonnet at the apex with the slope of the mountain in the background leading the eye down to the back of the kneeling fire-builder whose single feather points to his unmounted paint horse’s head and the viewer’s eye follows the mass of this horse to its rump and back to the bonnet.

“The dimensions of most of these plein-air paintings are in the 16 by 12 to 20 by 16 inch range and are typically vertical in format. Sometimes Dunton created much larger canvases using this template as seen in The Signal-Fire. Although this painting was reproduced in Scribner’s it was not an illustration for a particular story, but rather an easel painting slated to be featured in this major national journal. Several of Dunton’s paintings from the early 1910s to about 1920 were featured in national magazines, much as Frederic Remington’s work had been featured in Collier’s between 1906 to 1909.

“The Signal-Fire is an excellent example of Dunton’s work featuring American Indian subjects and figures.”

PROVENANCE
John R. Black, Dallas, Texas, ca. 1930
Present owner, by descent

LITERATURE
Scribner’s Magazine, vol. LIII, May 1913, frontispiece, illustrated

Condition ReportSurface is in excellent condition. Canvas is lined. 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.