257 Winter Twilight

Category Western Americana
Auction Currency USD
Start Price NA
Estimated at 90,000.00 - 120,000.00 USD
Winter Twilight
Artist: Riley, KennethDate of Birth: b. 1919
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 44 x 36 inches
Signed: Signed lower right/CA

Every element in Winter Twilight is chiseled, as if out of ice. Where there is any suggestion of softness, as in the rounded roofs of the earth lodges at the top of the canvas, or in the low mound beneath the feet of the brave (Mandan, perhaps, or Hidatsa or Arikara) and the hooves of his horse, the color is scumbled, broken and layered to give the effect of cold winter light that begins in the foreground in near shadow and ends in the pastel pinks on the cliff face and in the pale oranges that merge the lodges with the rocks. Details: the flap on the central lodge; the ribbons that fly from the shield tell us that a chill wind whirls. The sun itself hides in the sacred geometry of the shield. Neither the brave nor his horse reveal their emotions. It is too cold to think, and almost too cold to remember when it was warm.