Taos Pueblo Village Scene [SOLD]

Very few early native painters chose to work in the white man’s oil paints and produce art in the European style. Those who did found that their work was dismissed during their lifetimes for not being “Indian” enough.

The artwork of Looking Elk was conventional in design and content and interpreted everyday scenes at the pueblo in naturalistic style. The informal, unschooled and realistic approach of the artist to his themes and subject matter defied contemporary notion of “Indian” art before World War II.

When Looking Elk was 12 years old, he began posing for artist Oscar Berninghaus. It is evident that over the years of posing for Berninghaus, he developed a curiosity about the process of oil painting. Berninghaus presented him with a complete set of oil paints and brushes as aChristmas present one year. Undoubtedly, Berninghaus instructed him in the use of the paints.

This painting is typical of Looking Elk’s style, but it is more than twice the size of most of his pieces. Many of his paintings were post card size and some were actually stamped and sent through the mail. This painting is framed in a marvelous art deco period frame with scrolls and flowers in relief. The painting is signed Albert Looking Elk. It is circa 1920.

Provenance: From the collection of Alexander E. Anthony, Jr. who has owned it since 1988.