San Ildefonso Painting of Bison Hunt Scene by Julian Martinez [SOLD]

Although Julián Martinez had been painting before 1920, and was becoming known for his realistic paintings, he is best remembered for his outstanding painting of the designs on Maria's black pottery.

Martinez' paintings were among those selected by Mary Jane Colter to decorate La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe.  He received several commissions for murals at the Santa Fe Indian School; Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado (1935); and at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe.

This is a superlative image by this artist who was one of the premier pueblo painters of the 20th century. This fantastic, evocative, and subtly beautiful image depicts a bison hunt scene. Generally, the artist created the figures in contour with pencil and then wonderfully filled in with pigment. 

The Indian, with a raised spear in his right hand, wears a red loin cloth and has his face painted a brilliant green color.  The horse rears up as the bison lowers his head to attack mode.

As is traditional with early pueblo paintings, there is no ground plane nor is there anything in the sky or as a background scene.  The man, horse and bison dominate the painting.

The painting is signed in lower right but is not dated.  It most likely is from the first quarter of the 20th century, a time when the artist was not too occupied with painting Maria's blackware.

The painting appears to be in original excellent condition.