Indian Hunters in the Aspen Forest

     In the early 1930s, when Sharp, like many of the Taos painters, was fascinated with transposing the golden splendor of the mountain aspens to canvas, he made this remarkably lively painting. Although the Indian models appear to be more like hikers than hunters, the painting holds weight because of the freshness of light, the vigor of its brushwork, and the overall naturalism of the portrayal.

 

     The dating of this work comes from his pattern in the early thirties to set up his easel in the aspen-covered hills and because there is a listing of a 1932 work by this title in Forrest Fenn's “List of Paintings.” (Fenn, 2007, 329) The inclusion of Indians in the scene along with the vigor of the brushwork and broadly painted, brilliant foliage are akin to another mountain aspen and figure study of the same size and period, Rio Hondo Canyon, Taos County, New Mexico. (Record 296)

 

Peter H. Hassrick