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Waiting for Montezuma

Currency:USD Category:Western Americana Start Price:NA Estimated At:7,000.00 - 12,000.00 USD
Waiting for Montezuma
Waiting for Montezuma
Artist: Cooper, ADMDate of Birth: 1856-1924
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 50 x 30 inches
Signed: Signed lower right and dated 1895

Astley David Montague Cooper was a free spirit, one of those who put the ÒWildÓ in Wild West. Between drinking and carousing, CooperÑwho appears to have incurred the wrath of and been indebted to many a saloon keeperÑcreated an entirely new genre: most of the shapely, big boned supine nudes that hung behind the bars were Coopers, many taken in trade for overdue tabs. Waiting For Montezuma might seem uncharacteristic but Cooper left a large and varied body of work. While Waiting for Montezuma seems at first glance to depict a scene out of Aztec Mexico, it may refer to a place in Arizona known today as Montezuma Castle National Monument, a veritable city of cliff dwellings that bear some similarity to the ones in the background of the painting. Thought in the 19th century to have been an Aztec settlement, archaeologists have since proven that Montezuma Castle was built by the Sinagua Indians who farmed there between the 12th and 14th centuries.