LOT Davis Brothers Auction  /  American Cultural History Auction  / 

566

Charles Ernest Strausenback

Currency:USD Category:American Indian Art Start Price:10.00 USD Estimated At:150.00 - 200.00 USD
Charles Ernest Strausenback
A bid placed on our auctions is a legal contract – it cannot be revoked or cancelled for any reason. By registering for our auctions, you grant us permission to waive your right to execute any chargebacks against our company for any reason. Auctions will be sold with and without reserve. If a lot contains a reserve price, it will be clearly noted in the corresponding catalog. All items are sold as is, where is with no guarantees expressed or implied.
ALL SHIPPING IS HANDLED IN HOUSE.
38 1/2" by 26 3/4" framed. Charles Ernest. Strausenback (1890 - 1967) was active/lived in Colorado, Arizona. Charles Strausenback is known for Garden of the Gods mountain scene painting, western theme drawing. One of the least known aspects of the life of Charles Strausenback—founder of Garden of the Gods Trading Post—is his career as an artist. Largely self-taught, he began making art as a youth by carving souvenirs from gypsum found in a rock formation in Garden of the Gods park (see previous blog A Unique Souvenir: Gypsum Carvings Made at Garden of the Gods). In his early twenties Strausenback began to draw and paint on paper and canvas; the earliest known paintings date from 1914 and depict cowboys and Western scenes. In the 1920s Strausenback made paintings of two buildings that he was associated with, the first was Curt Goerke’s "The Indian" trading post and the other was his own trading post constructed in 1929; both paintings were used as advertising postcards. His subject matter gradually turned to scenes from Garden of the Gods, Native American themes and portraits and landscapes of the Southwest. Painting and artwork consumed much of Strausenback’s time during the 1930s. Before 1935 he studied briefly under Boardman Robinson, then director and instructor at the Broadmoor Art Academy, later becoming director of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in 1936. Robinson introduced Strausenback to the modernist movement, and he began using opaque watercolors to make angular representational paintings of landscapes and Pueblo Indian designs. Beginning about 1934 much of Strausenback’s artwork was signed with the pseudonym Charley Earnesta, derived from his first and middle names Charles Ernest. He also painted under the names Charley Yazza (for Navajo themed work) and Tong Say Ontya (or Tohn Say Ontay) for Pueblo themes. It is unknown why he used different names for some of his artwork, but it has been speculated that he was trying to distance himself from his German ancestry considering events transpiring in Europe at the time. Strausenback’s only solo exhibition occurred in 1936 when his modern canvases were displayed in the Chappell House, then the home of the Indian collection of the Denver Art Museum. A critique of the show by art museum director Donald Bear was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette January 8, 1936, under the title, “Strausenback Wins Renown as Artist.” In his assessment, Bear wrote: While Strausenback exhibited his modern paintings at area art shows in an attempt to gain attention as an artist, he continued to work in oils and standard watercolor media. Watercolors made in 1936 and 1937, when Charles and Esther began to spend their winters in Phoenix, Arizona, depict scenes of the Arizona desert, saguaros, the Superstition Mountains near Phoenix, and San Xavier del Bac Mission near Tucson. These paintings show a mature artist working in a variety of styles. Oils paintings of this time depicted New Mexico adobes, and landscapes of the Garden of the Gods. Charles Strausenback, founder of Garden of the Gods Trading Post, had been painting and drawing from a young age. But in the summer of 1938 he began working in a new medium, and produced a series of limited-edition lithographs and etchings over the next two years. The decision to make prints over original artwork was likely driven by economics; whereas his paintings sold for about $35 each, lithos could be sold for the more appealing price of $7.50 for small prints up to $12.50 for the largest. The lithographs were produced in editions ranging from twenty prints per image to editions as large as fifty impressions. Landscapes from Garden of the Gods were frequent subjects of Strausenback’s artwork. It’s tempting to speculate Strausenback had his lithographs inked and pulled by Out West Printing and Stationary Company, as they were the only company listed under the “Lithographing” section of the 1938 Colorado Springs city directory. But none of the prints have yet provided a source for the printer. The lithographs encompass a series of forty-five unique illustrations, depicting scenes from the Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak and scenic venues around Colorado Springs, also landscapes of Arizona including Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and the Superstition Mountains, as well as New Mexico adobes, and even San Juan Capistrano Mission in California. In 1936 the Strausenbacks began spending winter months in Phoenix, Arizona, and desert landscapes became a subject of Charles’s artwork. Many desert scenes were depicted in his lithos, actually surpassing the Colorado scenes in quantity, these were sold from the Strausenback Indian Silver Shops in Phoenix. Additionally, Strausenback made portraits of the Navajo and Pueblo Indians who worked for him; Awa Tsireh, Severo Tafoya, and Porfilia Tafoya were among his subjects. To accommodate the tourist market accustomed to purchasing postcard souvenirs of their visits to Garden of the Gods, Charles Strausenback produced a series of five scratchboard prints of scenes from the Pikes Peak region that sold at budget prices. Approximately postcard-sized, these prints were not signed by Strausenback and were printed in editions of 100. Cowboy themes used in his very first paintings reemerged in Strausenback’s art as he made prints of a speeding stagecoach, cowboys on bucking broncs, and western towns. Along with the lithographs Strausenback also experimented with copper plate etchings, and a small series were made with subjects such as Navajos and Plains Indians, Garden of the Gods, and the mountains near Phoenix. Each lithograph or etching was originally accompanied by a small green-colored paper certificate with the title of the print and the size of the edition hand written in pencil by Strausenback. Few of these have survived to the present. These lithographs and etchings provide evidence that Strausenback was a talented, if underrated, artist, not just an astute businessman. Strausenback’s lithos were numbered in the image in the order that they were created. The series number and a capital S for Strausenback were drawn into the image, typically in the bottom right corner, hidden among the elements of the subject matter. The etchings were not identified in the same fashion. The lithos were typically hand signed in the following fashion When Garden of the Gods Trading Post opened in 1929 Charles Strausenback’s skills as an artist were put to good use. He painted a large version of his company logo on the porch façade. He also painted murals on the exterior porch walls depicting Navajo, Hopi, Zuni and Rio Grande Pueblo figures. These murals were copied from other artist’s work, for example the mural painted by the left side door of a Pueblo woman emerging from a kiva is a copy of a painting by San Ildefonso artist Awa Tsireh, now in the collection of the Firestone Library at Princeton The other murals depict a Navajo sandpainting of Yei figures, and a Hopi sunface kachina. These murals are signed Tong Say Ontya 1929. Evidence suggests this was a name used infrequently by Charles Strausenback on his artwork. More proof of the use of this pseudonym by Strausenback is this opaque watercolor painting of a Pueblo corn dance signed “Tong Say Ontya 1933.” Below the painted signature is Strausenback’s name and 1933 written in pencil. Strausenback stopped making art by 1940 as no known examples of his work are dated later than 1939. Allard Auction Collection Inv: NO TAG
Sign In to Bookmark Lot