Twin Fawns and the Corn by Gerald Nailor [SOLD]

Gerald Nailor’s Harmony: A Navajo-Inspired Depiction of Fawns in Nature

This original painting is an excellent example of Gerald Nailor's style: animals, depicted in profile in a peaceful and beautiful scene. Here, we have two fawn enjoying a meal. They are crafted extraordinarily well, with simple, confident outlines. As is typical of Santa Fe Indian School students' "studio style" paintings, the artist's attention is focused towards his primary subjects, rather than his subjects' surroundings. With the fawn, adding symmetry to the composition, is a corn plant that is serving as their meal. In the foreground, a scattering of foot prints adds depth to the image. Hovering over the fawn and corn plant is a guardian rainbow—a great reminder of the artist's Navajo heritage. This simple, peaceful and beautiful image will delight collectors of Navajo paintings.

The painting is signed and dated in the lower right, Gerald Nailor ‘50.

Gerald Nailor Sr. (1917-1952) was an influential Diné painter and printmaker who is best known for his serene and beautiful depictions of wildlife. Dorothy Dunn's 1968 book American Indian Painting of the Southwest and Plains Areas provides an excellent description of the artist's style: "Gerald Nailor was the suave stylist-decorator. His lovely patterns of horses, deer, and antelopes were smartly and proudly drawn with never a thought for natural appearance. Every detail of their design was accomplished with adroitness and polish. If one must use the term in connection with Indian art, his work was sophisticated."

Nailor's life and career were very short. He lived to be just 35 years old. He was prolific, though, leaving behind a body of work that is highly desirable today. He was a printmaker, too, founding and operating a print shop called Tewa Enterprises with his Santa Fe Indian School classmate Harrison Begay. Their goal was to make Native American artwork—their own and that of their contemporaries—available to a larger audience. They succeeded in increasing the visibility and availability of Native American paintings. The Tewa prints remain available on the resale market at very low costs. His original paintings have become quite collectible.

Condition: no visible faults. Recently framed with archival materials.

Provenance: this painting of Twin Fawns and the Corn by Gerald Nailor is from the collection of a gentleman from Maryland

Reference: American Indian Painting of the Southwest and Plains Areas by Dorothy Dunn

TAGS: Santa Fe, Allan Houser, Picuris Pueblo, Diné of the Navajo Nation, Dorothy Dunn, Native American Paintings, Gerald Nailor