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拍品專文
Throughout his remarkably successful career, Eanger Irving Couse depicted Native Americans as peaceful people, living in harmony with nature. Putting on the War Shoes is a fine example of Couse's work, showing two Indians seated in the woods, with a man passing on traditional practices to a young boy. Although the title indicates that the shoes may have once been donned for war, the scene focuses on education and feelings of community. The soft light filtering through the trees accentuates the sense of a quiet, intimate moment shared by two people.
Born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1866, Couse became interested in the local Ojibwa, or Chippewa, Indians at a young age, often sketching the faces and habits of the Native American men in his area. Working as a house and sign painter to put himself through school, Couse attended the Chicago Art Institute and later studied in Europe. There he met his wife, Virginia Walker, and the couple returned to the United States to live on her family's ranch in Oregon. Couse established a studio and immediately set to painting the nearby Indian tribes -- the Klickitats, the Yakimas and Umatillas. The romantic, compassionate style of depicting Native Americans for which he became known emerged at this point. As Patricia Janis Broder notes, "A Couse Indian was a symbol of tranquility, of life as it had been lived in a pre-industrial age . . .. [His] work extolled what he saw as the purity of primitive life as lived in harmony with the laws of nature." (Taos: A Painter's Dream, New York, 1980, p. 140) Couse later moved to New Mexico, joining the growing community of artists in Taos. Although the brilliant colors of the Southwest changed his palette, Couse continued to paint Indians in landscapes, "considering it almost as important as the Indian himself because it was his natural environment." (L.M. Bickerstaff, Pioneer Artists of Taos, Denver, 1983, p. 81)
The development of Couse's mature style coincided with shifts in popular impressions of Native Americans. "[Couse's] paintings reflect the change at the turn of the century in the attitude of the American public toward the Indian . . . The era of Indian reprisals and uprisings was over; the Indian became an object of sympathy and was sentimentalized as a tragic hero -- the vanishing American" (Taos: A Painter's Dream, New York, 1980, p. 137). Couse, who strongly believed in the nobility of the American Indian, was able to bring this ideal to life in his paintings.
This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Virginia Couse Leavitt, granddaughter of the artist.
Born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1866, Couse became interested in the local Ojibwa, or Chippewa, Indians at a young age, often sketching the faces and habits of the Native American men in his area. Working as a house and sign painter to put himself through school, Couse attended the Chicago Art Institute and later studied in Europe. There he met his wife, Virginia Walker, and the couple returned to the United States to live on her family's ranch in Oregon. Couse established a studio and immediately set to painting the nearby Indian tribes -- the Klickitats, the Yakimas and Umatillas. The romantic, compassionate style of depicting Native Americans for which he became known emerged at this point. As Patricia Janis Broder notes, "A Couse Indian was a symbol of tranquility, of life as it had been lived in a pre-industrial age . . .. [His] work extolled what he saw as the purity of primitive life as lived in harmony with the laws of nature." (Taos: A Painter's Dream, New York, 1980, p. 140) Couse later moved to New Mexico, joining the growing community of artists in Taos. Although the brilliant colors of the Southwest changed his palette, Couse continued to paint Indians in landscapes, "considering it almost as important as the Indian himself because it was his natural environment." (L.M. Bickerstaff, Pioneer Artists of Taos, Denver, 1983, p. 81)
The development of Couse's mature style coincided with shifts in popular impressions of Native Americans. "[Couse's] paintings reflect the change at the turn of the century in the attitude of the American public toward the Indian . . . The era of Indian reprisals and uprisings was over; the Indian became an object of sympathy and was sentimentalized as a tragic hero -- the vanishing American" (Taos: A Painter's Dream, New York, 1980, p. 137). Couse, who strongly believed in the nobility of the American Indian, was able to bring this ideal to life in his paintings.
This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Virginia Couse Leavitt, granddaughter of the artist.