Couse historian Virginia Couse Leavitt wrote, “‘No one ever tried to paint the Indian in Couse’s way before. No one has ever taken him quite so seriously from a purely artistic standpoint.’ This quotation from the New York Sun captures the contemporary perception of Couse’s Indian paintings in the early years of the twentieth century. Unlike George Catlin and Karl Bodmer, who more than a half-century earlier had made ethnographic records of Indians, or more recent artists like Frederic Remington and Charles Schreyvogel, whose paintings were illustrations of historic or imagined events, Couse approached his canvas foremost as a work of art in which formal considerations were primary. These were the formal considerations he had been taught as an academic painter: good drawing, classical composition, fidelity to nature – areas in which he excelled and ideals to which he remained faithful throughout his career.”

PROVENANCE
Scottsdale Art Auction, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2017
Private collection, Houston, Texas

LITERATURE
Nicholas Woloshuk, E. Irving Couse: 1866-1936, Santa Fe Village Art Museum, 1976, p. 19, illustrated

Additional Resources

• Eanger Irving Couse’s Past Results
• View Condition Report

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.