Western Paintings and Sculpture including Contemporary Native American Art Session I

Literature:

Painting will appear in the forthcoming E.I. Couse Catalogue Raisonné by Virginia Couse Leavitt, granddaughter of artist

Born in Michigan, where the Chippewa people nearby kindled his passion for Native cultures, E.I. Couse studied briefly in Chicago and New York before traveling to Paris to study at the Academie Julian and with, among others, William Bougereau. Couse met and married his wife, Virginia, in Paris, where she was studying illustration. On his return to the United States, Couse devoted himself to painting Native Americans. After a conversation with Ernest Blumenschein, the Couses established  summer residency in 1902. They would ultimately take up residence next door to Sharp. In 1915, Couse was one of the founders of the Taos Society of Artists and was its first president. Because of his calendar contracts with the Santa Fe Railroad and other companies, Couse’s images have become part of the collective consciousness, helping to shape our romanticized notion of Native Americans. In An Indian Boy, Couse gives us moonlight and a Native child by the placid water, waiting patiently while a small fire sends up a thin stream of smoke. Across the water, is that another wisp from another fire? An answer from a friend?

-James D. Balestrieri