Russian Village Market

Additional Information

Provenance:
Private collection, sold to benefit the Wichita Art Museum
Hindman, Chicago, IL, 2023
Private collection

Painted with a symphony of delicate color that shines lightly through the snow and the buzzing of moving figures, Leon Gaspard’s Russian Village Market was painted in 1917, one year before the Russian-born painter arrived in Taos, New Mexico. The artist, who had traveled vast distances in Asia and Europe prior to his arrival in America, discovered Taos at a pivotal moment just after the founding of the Taos Society of Artists. He may have been considered for membership except for a TSA rule that required members be American. Although he wasn’t part of the group, Gaspard was close with the founders: he lived near Joseph Henry Sharp and Eanger Irving Couse, played chess with Ernest L. Blumenschein and hunted with William Herbert “Buck” Dunton.