Doris Steider “Call Back Yesterday”

The Mastery of Egg Tempera: Doris Steider's Northern New Mexico

This evocative work by Doris Steider (1924-2010) is more than a landscape; it is a meticulously crafted historical record of a vanishing New Mexico. Through her choice of subject and her incredibly demanding medium, Steider captures the quiet, dignified aging of a traditional Northern New Mexico home.

While popular culture often imagines all New Mexico architecture as flat-roofed, Steider highlights a regional truth. In the high elevations of Northern New Mexico, heavy snowfall necessitates pitched roofs.

The house stands as a relic of the past — its door hanging off the hinges and window frames weathered by time. Yet, rather than feeling desolate, the piece exudes a sense of warm nostalgia. It invites the viewer to wonder about the families who once called this rocky hill home.

The adobe has weathered to a somber dark gray, but the porch — protected by the iconic red tin roof — retains its original cream color. This splash of red provides a visual and emotional warmth that anchors the entire composition against the cold, gray post-storm sky.

The most extraordinary aspect of this painting is the medium itself. Steider, who held a Master of Arts from the University of New Mexico, specialized in egg tempera — an ancient and notoriously difficult technique. Painting in egg tempera is estimated to take 20 times the labor of oil painting. The artist must mix pigments with egg yolk and apply them in thousands of tiny, precise strokes. For Steider, this was the only medium capable of capturing the intricate textures of nature. It creates a luminous, matte finish that allows for incredible detail in the weathered wood, rocky soil, and "fresh" appearance of the snow.

Condition: very good condition

Provenance: this original painting by Doris Steider "Call Back Yesterday" is from the estate of an Albuquerque family

Reference: Hanson, Carl A. Painters in the Valley - A Biographical Dictionary of Albuquerque, New Mexico Area Artists 1880-1990, Sunstone Press, Santa Fe.2025. 

TAGS: Western Art Paintings, Doris Steider