AUCTIONS Scottsdale Art Auction 2016 A Woman's Pride

311 A Woman's Pride

SOLD
Winning Bid Undisclosed
This item SOLD at 2016 Apr 02 @ 15:53UTC-7 : PDT/MST
Category Art
Auction Currency USD
Start Price 125,000.00 USD
Estimated at 250,000.00 - 350,000.00 USD
A Woman's Pride
Artist: Terpning, HowardDate of Birth: b. 1927
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 34 x 24 inches
Signed: Signed lower right/CA and dated 1984
Verso: Signed and titled verso

The textures of paint in the different colors in Howard Terpning’s A Woman’s Pride build what is, ostensibly, a straightforward portrait, into a far more sublime artwork. Start with the impasto rocks and the rolling hills of coarse, bracken orange grass that give way to a gray green sky and clouds. These elements sweep around the figure, almost as a museum diorama might. Then look at the dog—a great dog, a dog that makes one wish Terpning would paint more dogs—and the travois the dog drags, with firewood and a possibles bag strapped to a wooden hoop. There are roughs and smooths here, smooth in the dog’s bright coat, rough in the wood, as well as some subtle beadwork on the flap of the bag. Now look at the woman, take in the pride in her profile, the sensitivity in her eyes, the sheen on her pulled back hair, and the red blanket with its subtle plaid, a trade blanket, Hudson’s Bay perhaps, and, perhaps, the source of her pride. The woolen texture of the blanket, the folds in it, the shapes of the woman’s body beneath, exquisitely rendered in an illusion of relief by Terpning—all these balance the composition.
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