Untitled Young Diné Girl Riding a Horse

Harrison Begay's Dynamic Horse and Rider (Haskay Yahne Yah)

This untitled watercolor painting by renowned Diné artist Harrison Begay (1917-2012) is a dynamic homage to the horse, an animal of profound significance and utility to the Diné people.

Action and Composition

Begay places the horse, the true focal point, front and center, capturing it in a moment of powerful movement — leaping off the ground across the arid plains of the Navajo Nation. Riding the horse is a young Diné girl, rendered in the familiar, beautifully detailed style that collectors expect from Begay. She wears brightly colored traditional clothing and raises a whip in her right hand, urging the horse onward. The artist masterfully conveys both the energy of the leap and the seamless partnership between rider and animal.

Cultural and Stylistic Elements

Begay layers the composition with strong cultural symbolism:

• Rainbow Guardians: Directly above the girl and the horse, a pair of Rainbow Guardians arch over the scene. The rainbow is a traditional Diné sign of protection and blessing, indicating safety and good fortune for the journey.

• Rain Clouds: Hovering nearby are stylized rain clouds, symbolizing moisture and fertility, which are always a hopeful presence in the dry landscape of the reservation.

The painting is characteristic of Begay's signature style, utilizing clean lines and vivid, flat color fields. The work is dual-signed, bearing the artist's Native name, "Haskay Yahne Yah" (meaning "Warrior who Came up from the Mountain"), in the lower left, and his Anglo signature, "Harrison Begay," in the lower right. It is a stunning example of Begay's ability to blend traditional subject matter with elegant, enduring artistry.

In 2012, the Smithsonian Museum featured an exhibit called "A Song for the Horse Nation: Horses in Native American Cultures." The introduction to the exhibit, which is available on the museum's webpage, states:

"The story of the relationship of Native peoples and horses is one of the great sagas of human contact with the animal world. Native peoples have traditionally regarded the animals in our lives as fellow creatures with which a common destiny is shared. When American Indians encountered horses — which some tribes call the Horse Nation — they found an ally, inspiring and useful in times of peace, and intrepid in times of war. Horses transformed Native life and became a central part of many tribal cultures."

By the 1800s, American Indian horsemanship was legendary, and the survival of many Native peoples, especially on the Great Plains, depended on horses. Native peoples paid homage to horses by incorporating them into their cultural and spiritual lives, and by creating art that honored the bravery and grace of the horse.

The glory days of the horse culture were brilliant but brief, lasting just over a century. The bond between American Indians and the Horse Nation, however, has remained strong through the generations."

In the exhibit, the Diné legend of the creation of the horse by the Holy Ones is featured in the section titled "Blessing for the People: Native Stories of Horse Origins." It goes as follows:

"The god Begochiddy originally created the horse for the Diné people. The Sun rode a favorite horse as he crossed the sky and kept herds to the north, south, east, and west of his home. Turquoise Boy journeyed to see the horses. Mirage Man showed him the corrals, with white-shell horses to the east, turquoise horses to the south, yellow abalone-shell horses to the west, and spotted horses to the north. They were the colors of the four directions — the colors of morning, noon, afternoon, and evening."

Turquoise Boy then undertook a quest to find a means of travel for the Diné. After several false starts, he finally visited a mesa in the Dinetah, the original Diné homeland, where he found a fat man and his family living in a hole in the ground. The fat man turned out to be Mirage Man, who gave Turquoise Boy the bead, pollen, and horse saliva fetishes needed to produce horses."

Condition: very good condition

Provenance: this Untitled Young Diné Girl Riding a Horse is from a client of Adobe Gallery

Recommended Reading: American Indian Painting of the Southwest and Plains Areas by Dorothy Dunn (1903-1992)

TAGS: Navajo Nation, Native American Paintings, Harrison Begay