Indian Women Collecting Grapes from Vines in Trees [SOLD]

Jean Bales was well known for her paintings depicting the traditional life of Iowa Indian women, her affiliated tribe.  “The artist’s paintings depict the culture and the everyday life of the Plains Indians.  The life, religion, and culture of these people are important to her.  Bales is one of only 243 Iowa Indians left on the tribal roles.  Her mother is one of only 24 that are full-blood.”  Snodgrass, 1965.  Both of these women are now gone and we do not know how many Iowa Indians remain on the tribal roles.

Her works have been included in such noted private collections as the late artist, Helen Hardin, as well as such prominent institutional collections as the Vatican in Rome. She has been exhibited in major museums, including the Heard Museum (Phoenix, AZ), the Wheelwright Museum (Santa Fe, NM) and the Southern Plains Indian Museum (Anadarko, OK).

She was 1984 IACA Artist of the Year. She was living and working in Oklahoma at the time of her death.

This painting shows the Indian women gathering grapes from vines growing amongst the trees.  There are piles of grapes in the baskets on the ground.  It appears to be watercolor and pencil on paper.  It is matted with oval mats and framed in a dark brown wood frame.  It is signed in lower right.

Condition:  It appears to be in original condition but has not been examined out of the frame

Provenance: from the private collection of a Santa Fe family