Original Painting of Navajo Boy Walking Through Snow [SOLD]

Robert Chee (1937-1971) Hashke-Yil-e-Cale was a Navajo painter whose life and career were, unfortunately, very short.  Chee’s mother recognized his talent and enrolled him at Brigham, Utah’s Inter-Mountain School. There, he studied with famous Apache artist Allan Houser.  He was in the military from 1958 to 1961, and was actively creating art then, too, painting murals in Army facilities in Germany.

Chee’s paintings are almost always in keeping with the traditional Navajo style, which had already been made recognizable by artists like Harrison Begay, Quincy Tahoma, and Gerald Nailor.  The influence of these predecessors is clear in Chee’s paintings, particularly in his subjects’ faces. The fine lines and incredible detail for which the pioneering Navajo painters are rightfully celebrated is present in Chee’s strongest works.

This untitled painting is a simple, classic image that will appeal to anyone with a fondness for Navajo imagery.  Chee’s subject, here, is a young man walking through the desert during a snowstorm. The man himself is clearly the product of a Navajo traditionalist—his face strong and intense, with slightly exaggerated curves and an almost triangular nose; his limbs slightly elongated.  He’s hunched over as he walks, giving the viewer the impression that he’s determined to escape from the cold.

Chee’s image is incredibly well-crafted.  His color choices are simple but effective: strong browns, blues, and, perhaps most notably, the soft white with which he created the painting’s most unique aspect: the snow.  Painted over, across and behind his subject in wavy translucent lines and sloping bursts of flakes, Chee’s snowstorm is every bit as alive as his human subject. Rarely did these Navajo painters depict winter scenes like this one.  That Chee did so with such grace speaks to his natural abilities. Had his life and career been longer, he likely would have rose to the prominence of the aforementioned Navajo legends.

Condition: this Original Painting of Navajo Boy Walking Through Snow is in excellent condition

Provenance: from the large collection of a New York resident.

Recommended Reading: Southwest Indian Painting: A Changing Art by Clara Lee Tanner