Original Oil Painting entitled “Sunday Morning" by Howard Schleeter [SOLD]

When Schleeter made the decision to make his living entirely as an artist in 1929, he traveled to New Mexico. The following year he married and the couple made New Mexico their permanent home. The Great Depression took its toll on Schleeter who occasionally found work digging ditches to make ends meet. In 1936, his financial status greatly improved when he received the first of several commissions from the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

In 1945, the Encyclopedia Britannica referred to Schleeter as “an artist’s artist.” He also received local attention when he became one of the first artists chosen by Peter Hurd and Jane Mabry for his significant contributions to New Mexico’s art. Schleeter taught at the University of New Mexico during 1950-1951 and 1954. He had lived in Albuquerque from 1930 to 1970, with brief periods of living in Santa Fe (1958-1968) and Placitas (1970-1976).

Schleeter is known as a modernist painter, but his modernist paintings were not received well in New Mexico in the 1930s. He was ahead of his time. After all, the early Taos and Santa Fe artists were producing traditional landscapes and Indian themed paintings and that is where the attention was focused, not on abstract art.

Schleeter was well qualified to paint in the style of the Taos and Santa Fe artists, as illustrated in this flawless painting of an Albuquerque church and tin roof structure that was painted in 1939.

The tree in the left foreground sets the stage for the painting. It acts as a frame for the buildings in the background. The red tin roof and church steeple bring the viewer right into the picture as if one were walking along the path to the gateway. The heavy palette used by Schleeter provides richness to the painting. The very dark green leaves contrast with the weathered red of the roof and the wooden steeple that shows aged paint.

The painting is in excellent condition. It appears to be in the original 1939 frame.

Provenance: Exhibited at the Euro-American Fine Art Collection New Mexico Artists June 15, 2007 until September 3, 2007 and the Santa Fe Tribute to Carl Von Hassler June 2009 both presented at adobe gallery Santa fe.