Male and Female Diné (Navajo) on Horseback [SOLD]

In the 1920s and early '30s, Hogner ran the Klagetoh Trading Post in Arizona.  He married a Navajo woman, painted and traveled in Arizona and New Mexico, and in 1930 won a prize in an exhibition at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff.   He also exhibited work at the Albuquerque Museum.

Divorcing his Indian wife, he became a professor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and there met Dorothy Childs, who was an established author of children's books whose subjects were wide ranging but often focused on science and nature with topics of  bugs, earthworms, cats, butterflies, burros, dogs, puffins and snakes.  The couple married, and they subsequently collaborated on nearly forty books including some Southwest topics. The Hogners returned to settle in the east in the mid 1930s.  Hogner only spent about 10 years in the southwest. 

This marvelous watercolor by Hogner clearly demonstrates his talent as a watercolorist, a medium not easy to master.  His control of the watercolor paints is exceptional as is his drawing of the horses and people. It is probable that the painting was completed in the 1930s while he was a resident of New Mexico.  It is signed but not dated.  The painting has recently been framed using all archival materials.  A gold fillet surrounding the mat echoes the gold wood frame.