Provenance:

Jim Fowler's Period Gallery, Scottsdale.

Sale, Coeur d’Alene Art Auction, Reno, Nevada, July 25, 1998, Lot 144.

Sale, Sotheby's, New York, May 22, 2008, Lot 160.

Sale, Altermann Galleries, Santa Fe, June 19, 2010, Lot 52.

Acquired at the above sale.

Exhibited:

Indian Hill Historical Museum Association, Cincinnati, Ohio, n.d.

Lot Note:

In Fairy Tales, Henry Farny offers an endearing moment between a mother and her child as they collect water. As banal as it seems, the scene is shrouded in enchantment. From the evanescent silhouettes in the back to the soft light of the setting sun, and the brightly lit windows animating the pueblo in the distance, the evening atmosphere augurs a communal experience of fellowship and its associated rituals. The intimacy that bonds the mother and her child signals the importance of oral storytelling as a form of cultural stewardship, passing down heritage generation after generation, a practice eminently crucial at the time that Farny was painting the Southwest.