Original Painting Untitled – Purple Violets [R]

Burbank was born in Illinois and attended the Chicago Art Academy and began working as an illustrator for the Northwest magazine of the Northern Pacific Railway, that afforded him the opportunity, for the first time, to see the Rockies, Montana, Idaho, and Washington. He traveled to Germany and, while studying in Munich, met Joseph Henry Sharp and William R. Leigh.

In 1895, he was commissioned to paint portraits of the great Indian leaders of the time. He started in Oklahoma, traveled throughout the West, exhibiting his portraits for the first time in Philadelphia. They created a sensation, and he received great recognition for his work. He continued his constant travels and painting, living for periods in California, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Burbank is quite well known for his conte crayon drawings of Native portraits, but he was quite proficient at oil paintings as well. The Butler Institute of American Art has approximately 400 works of art by Burbank. Almost 200 of them are his oils, and another 200 are the conte drawings, so we see that he was equally producing drawings and oil paintings.

This marvelous small oil painting of a vase of purple violets is certainly an excellent example of this proficiency at painting in a small scale. It is in excellent condition, and has recently been framed in a 22k gold gilded hand-carved replica of a period Newcomb-Macklin frame by Goldleaf Framemakers of Santa Fe. It is signed in lower left, and is undated.