Titled on Verso “Deer Season” in Artist’s Hand [SOLD]

Quincy Tahoma (1917-1956) was a talented Navajo painter who was initially educated in the arts by Dorothy Dunn at the Santa Fe Indian School.  Alongside fellow Navajo painters like Harrison Begay and Gerald Nailor, Tahoma learned to create simple, boldly-colored watercolor paintings that depicted Native life and religious rituals.  These artists’ subjects were usually pictured in profile and with little background or ground plane. These “flat-style” or “studio style” paintings were and still are popular with collectors of Native art.

Tahoma, a naturally gifted artist, evolved quickly as a painter.  His earlier works focused mostly on everyday Navajo life—the scenes he witnessed every day during his childhood.  As he grew older and more technically adept, he focused his attention on more complicated scenes. Many of his best images feature muscular Navajo hunters clashing with their surroundings. His works are full of movement and action, but rarely feel violent or indulgent. Tahoma’s life and career were, unfortunately, cut short by alcoholism. He passed away in 1956 at age 39. Fortunately for those who appreciate his works, he was very prolific and left behind a large body of work.

This painting was titled “Deer Season” by Tahoma in his handwriting on the back.  It is dated 1958 and is an exemplary work from this historically significant artist.  Its subject is one of Tahoma’s late-career favorites: the hunter doing battle with nature. Here, a mountain lion is perched in a high tree branch, mouth agape and claws extended towards the hunter.  The hunter’s horse, also startled by the mountain lion, is kicked back onto his hind legs. The hunter looks frightened but focused as he draws the blade—likely the same implement that earned him the deer which is bound and attached to the horse’s back.  It’s an impressive amount of action, all of which is depicted skillfully and gracefully.  What is even more extraordinary is how Quincy Tahoma can be very different. One way is his signature which is like a Cartouche. Within this Cartouche is a miniature painting of the next logical scene. If you look closely at the image below the rabbit, you will see the encounter between man and beast play out. What we don't know is who won. Quincy did this in almost all his paintings and is quite unique among his contemporaries.  He also placed a date there, too.  So, this painting was done in 1948.

Tahoma’s line work, here, is as precise as ever.  His compositional choices—tree branches reaching in towards the center of the image, sparse falling leaves, a single plant and rabbit in the lower right—work perfectly. That Tahoma was able to create images like this that are at once serene and full of movement speaks to his natural abilities as an artist and explains why his works have become so collectible in the years since his untimely passing.  The painting is signed, dated, and framed beautifully in a hand carved walnut frame that is original to the painting.

Condition: This Painting Titled on Verso "Deer Season" in Artist's Hand is in excellent, original condition and framed with archival materials

Provenance: from the collection of a Colorado resident

Recommended Reading: Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist by Havens and Badertscher.