191 Children of the Sun

SOLD
Winning Bid Undisclosed
This item SOLD at 2016 Apr 02 @ 13:49UTC-7 : PDT/MST
Category Art
Auction Currency USD
Start Price 30,000.00 USD
Estimated at 60,000.00 - 90,000.00 USD
Children of the Sun
Artist: McGrew, R. BrownellDate of Birth: 1916-1994
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 36 x 66 inches
Signed: Signed lower right
Verso: Titled and dated 5-25-89 verso

Children of the Sun refers to the famous Navajo story of Asdza´a´ na´dleehe´, or Changing Woman, the offspring of First Man and First Woman and of Sky and Earth. She symbolizes the earth and the order of the universe—spring, summer, fall, winter— growing old but never dying, and being renewed every year.. Changing Woman bore two children with the Sun: Naaye´e´’ neizgha´ni´, Monster Slayer, and To ba´ji´sh chi´ni´, Child of War, who clear the Earth of monsters and make it safe for humans. She created the ancestors of the Navajo people from pieces of her own skin and taught the Blessingway Ceremony to the Navajo. In this painting, Brownell McGrew finds some humor in these Children of the Sun, who, like all children, are, at various times, eager to learn, curious, distracted, proud. They, in turn, are mirrored in the motley of the burros they ride, but all are painted against the desert landscape that has seen every generation, and will see many more.