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Lot Essay
An influential member of the Taos Society of Artists, Eanger Irving Couse first arrived in the Southwest at a time when national attitudes and stereotypes toward Native Americans were changing. In the Nineteenth Century, Native Americans were viewed as savages and heathens who stood in the way of our national expansion westward. The Native culture was essentially annihilated before the turn of the century when the American Indians were forced onto reservations and survived on government rations. With the threat to Western progress removed, the attitudes of the American public eventually became more sympathetic. After the turn of the century, many Americans saw the Native American population as 'children of nature' who lived in peaceful harmony with the Earth. There was also a deep realization that this rich culture was quickly vanishing and would soon be lost forever.
With the great westward expansion came the railroad, which quickly made the western territories accessible. The Atichison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company was a major sponsor of many of the Taos artists and purchased paintings of the southwest to use in their advertising campaign. The company favored Couse and used many of his paintings in their advertising and promotion. For the company's 1928 calendar, The Santa Fe Railway promoted a 63 hour extra fair train de luxe, called The Chief, which made trips between Chicago and California. William Haskell Simpson, the company's general advertising agent, chose the artwork for the railway's promotion and corporate collection. Discussing his ideas for this promotion with Couse, Simpson told him: "You may have noticed our pen and ink color sketch in The Chief folder . . . what would you think of using that idea again, but making the standing figure of the chief as large as possible by bringing it more into the foreground and modifying the other figures, in order that it would not be an exact copy. If this can be done, may I trouble you to submit a color layout for Mr. Black's inspection." (Suzan Campbell, Taos Artists and Their Patrons: 1898-1950, Notre Dame, Indiana, 1999, p. 29) Although this type of artistic control frustrated the artist, Couse used the Railway as a way to gain exposure for his artwork and as a steady source of income.
With the great westward expansion came the railroad, which quickly made the western territories accessible. The Atichison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company was a major sponsor of many of the Taos artists and purchased paintings of the southwest to use in their advertising campaign. The company favored Couse and used many of his paintings in their advertising and promotion. For the company's 1928 calendar, The Santa Fe Railway promoted a 63 hour extra fair train de luxe, called The Chief, which made trips between Chicago and California. William Haskell Simpson, the company's general advertising agent, chose the artwork for the railway's promotion and corporate collection. Discussing his ideas for this promotion with Couse, Simpson told him: "You may have noticed our pen and ink color sketch in The Chief folder . . . what would you think of using that idea again, but making the standing figure of the chief as large as possible by bringing it more into the foreground and modifying the other figures, in order that it would not be an exact copy. If this can be done, may I trouble you to submit a color layout for Mr. Black's inspection." (Suzan Campbell, Taos Artists and Their Patrons: 1898-1950, Notre Dame, Indiana, 1999, p. 29) Although this type of artistic control frustrated the artist, Couse used the Railway as a way to gain exposure for his artwork and as a steady source of income.