Olaf C. Seltzer

(American, 1877-1957)

Scouting on the Plains, 1900

watercolor on paperboard

signed O. Seltzer and dated (lower left)

20 x 28 5/8 inches.

The Estate of Henry V. Nickel, Potomac, Maryland

This lot is located in Denver.

Provenance:

Paul Elcano, Sr., Reno, Nevada.

Coeur D'Alene Auction, Reno, Sale of July 27, 2013, Lot 255.

Acquired directly from the above sale.

Lot Note:

Olaf Seltzer, an expatriate from Denmark, worked as a machinist for the Great Northern Railroad, placing him on the frontlines of the sweeping changes shaping the American West. His fruitful career as a painter was nurtured by a deep-seated passion for the Plains of Montana and the native peoples inhabiting them. Mentored by Charles Marion Russell, Seltzer shared his taste for expansive vistas and intricately designed settings. But beyond the fleeting action his paintings sometimes depict, Seltzer sought to elicit moods, and composure is a defining trait often found in his work.

The subject of scouting—the attentive and stealthy survey of the land—is thus an ideal vehicle to represent the feel of the American West in a deliberately composed manner. Here, the Indians on their spotted horses are central to the composition, though the vast expanse stretching all around them is an equally, if more subtly, dominant motif. This grandiose and imposing setting tethers Native people and cultures to their ancestral land, a fact that was never lost on Seltzer and the previous generation of painters who adored and adopted these territories as their homes.

Scouting on the Plains, 1900