RARE Original Painting of a Pair of White Tail Fawn [SOLD]

In 34 years of having the gallery, I have never had an original painting by Woody Crumbo. They are extremely rare. Crumbo produced many etchings and other print media, but very few original paintings according to his son. I am really excited to have this one available.

Crumbo had a rather traumatic early life. His father died when he was four and his mother when he was seven. His schooling was interrupted for 10 years following 3rd grade. He returned to school at age 17 to study art, anthropology and history.

Crumbo’s painting Deer and Birds was the very first Native American painting acquired by Philbrook Art Center. Crumbo was a close friend of Thomas Gilcrease, founder of The Thomas Gilcrease Museum, as he assembled his famous art collection. He, Acee Blue Eagle and Willard Stone were the three Native Americans closest to Gilcrease.

Honors, public collections, awards, solo exhibits, commissions, public collections, media acknowledgments, and publications are far too many to even hint at listing in this limited space. Suffice it to say that Crumbo was a well recognized Native American artist.

In this painting, it appears that the two deer have been startled by something off in the distance. They both are looking in the same direction. Unlike so many Pueblo artists, Crumbo has included landscape in the painting. The hills in the background are presented in the slightest of detail with only lines to delineate them, but they do exist. The small amount of rocks and grass in the foreground and the water running in the river are presented in more detail and in color. The larger animal is almost featured in the direct center of the painting with the lesser one off center. It causes the viewer to focus attention on the front animal and then scan to the right to see the other one as well as to take in the river. That was a way to involve the viewer into the painting.

The painting appears to be on brown paper. It is signed and dated in lower right Crumbo 63. It appears to be in original excellent condition although it has not been examined out of the frame.