Unknown Artist
b. 1954
Guardians in the Willows
MEDIUM: Oil on canvas
DIMENSIONS: 40 x 50 inches
Signed lower right/CA and dated 2005
Signed, titled and dated verso
SOLD FOR: $140,400
Including Buyers Premium
2017,
LOT 415
b. 1954
MEDIUM: Oil on canvas
DIMENSIONS: 40 x 50 inches
Signed lower right/CA and dated 2005
Signed, titled and dated verso
SOLD FOR: $140,400
Including Buyers Premium
Martin Grelle is unquestionably one of the preeminent painters of Native Americans. His dramatic, precise canvases contain a wealth of details arranged in strong compositions. Guardians in the Willows is classic Grelle. In hard, cold blue light that etches shadows in the snow, two warriors stand a chilly watch at the edge of a camp. Their horses, shaggy coated against the season, snuffle frostily—you can see their breath in the air—struggling to stand, and stand in, this weather. Grelle gives us a sense of just how cold it is by making the folds in the blanket coat and blankets seem brittle and stiff. Tough men and tough horses do a very tough job.