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Delano, Gerard Curtis - Dineh

Currency:USD Category:Art Start Price:NA Estimated At:150,000.00 - 250,000.00 USD
Delano, Gerard Curtis - Dineh
Dineh
Artist: Delano, Gerard CurtisDate of Birth: 1890-1972
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 30 x 36
Signed: Signed lower left
Verso: Signed, titled and inscribed "This is what the Navajo call themselves. It means: The People" verso
Frame/Outer Dim: 46 x 40 x 3.5
As Richard Bowman writes in Walking with Beauty: “Bill Harmsen was a friend of Delano’s and visited his studio many times. One day Bill received a call from Jerry [Delano], and was very excited, and wanted to show him a painting he had thought to be the finest he had ever done. During his visit, Jerry told him how many times he had put the uncompleted painting aside, and not until now was he able to finish it in its entirety. ‘Dineah is one of my finest and most valuable paintings,’ Bill has also remarked.”
Gerard Curtis Delano filled his lonely childhood in Massachusetts with fishing, hiking—and drawing. No one thought much of his artistic ambitions, but Delano persisted, making his way to and through art schools in New Bedford and New York, where he embarked on a career in commercial art. But the American West always fascinated Delano; some of his earliest drawings had been of Indians. Finally, in the 1920’s, he went west, had his first taste of success, then returned to the East Coast to study with N. C. Wyeth and Harvey Dunn. Afterwards, Delano headed west for good. Settling in Colorado, he made his career, and fame, painting Native Americans—the Navajo in particular—and the history of the Old West. Lush, minimally rendered masses, soft, diffuse light, and beautiful contrasting colors animate Delano’s paintings.
This lot is illustrated in The Story of Leanin’ Tree on page 221
A copy of the book will accompany this lot