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United States, unknown artist, ca. 1920s. A beautiful oil on canvas painting depicting two wickiups (also wigwams or wetus) with two seated/kneeling figures, a donkey, and a few pieces of pottery in the vicinity. Snow-capped mountains rise in the distance with wide open blue skies above. The painting is beautifully executed with vivid details and a strong sense of aerial as well as linear perspective. Judging from the terrain, we are likely looking at a Western setting. Given this, the structures may be Chiricahua wickiups. See anthropologist Morris Opler's description of these structures in the extended description below. Size: 14" W x 11" H (35.6 cm x 27.9 cm); 18.375" W x 15.25" H (46.7 cm x 38.7 cm) framed
"The home in which the family lives is made by the men and is ordinarily a circular, dome-shaped brush dwelling, with the floor at ground level. It is eight feet high at the center and approximately seven feet in diameter. To build it, long fresh poles of oak or willow are driven into the ground or placed in holes made with a digging stick. These poles, which form the framework, are arranged at one-foot intervals and are bound together at the top with yucca-leaf strands. Over them a thatching of bundles of big bluestem grass or bear grass is tied, shingle style, with yucca strings. A smoke hole opens above a central fireplace. A hide, suspended at the entrance, is fixed on a cross-beam so that it may be swung forward or backward. The doorway may face in any direction. For waterproofing, pieces of hide are thrown over the outer hatching, and in rainy weather, if a fire is not needed, even the smoke hole is covered. In warm, dry weather much of the outer roofing is stripped off. It takes approximately three days to erect a sturdy dwelling of this type." (Opler, Morris E. (1941). An Apache life-way: The economic, social, and religious institutions of the Chiricahua Indians. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. (Reprinted in 1962, Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 1965, New York: Cooper Square Publishers; 1965, Chicago: University of Chicago Press; & 1994, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, pp. 22-23.
Provenance: private Glorieta, New Mexico, USA collection
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#150843
Condition
Painting is in excellent condition. Set in a wood frame that shows minor wear. Backed with cardboard.