Artist: De Cost Smith
Title: Indian Encampment
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 24 1/2 x 32 inches
Signed: Signed lower right
Framed/Base: 35 x 42 x 5 inches
This lot's overall appearance is Good. This piece was evaluated under a black light. This piece has been lined. Overpaint in many of the lower more severe craquelure lines and touch up areas in the teepee, left bush, and grass. Craquelure throughout the majority of the painting.
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Overall Dimensions
Height: 35.00
Width: 42.00
Depth: 5.00
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Provenance:
Private collection, Nevada
De Cost Smith was born in 1864 in upstate New York and was immediately drawn to the life and culture of the American Indians he came across around his home. His childhood home was located near the Reservation of the Onondaga Tribe. Like early members of the Taos Society of Artists, Smith studied art in New York City before traveling to the Academie Julian in Paris, where his scenes of Native life were shown in the school’s salons. At this early moment in his career, he was also inspired by the Indian paintings of George De Forest Brush.
In 1884, he took his first trip to the Dakota Territory to complete more paintings of Native life. Here he traveled extensively among the many tribes of the plains and even learned to speak several dialects. He illustrated many articles for Outing Magazine along with fellow artist Edwin Willard Deming. His archives can be found at Cornell University and several of his works can be found in the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City.
His later work focused on the difficulties faced by the Sioux people. His painting Driven Back was included in the art exhibition at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.