Original Painting “I am a Warrior” [R]

Quincy Tahoma loved action scenes and painted many such scenes during his career.  This one is a good illustration of a young Navajo warrior wrapped in a red blanket.  He holds a rifle in his right hand while he is glancing back at something which the viewer cannot see.  The horse is very actively running.  The young man has his left arm up in the air as if he is calling for others to join him.

Tahoma was especially talented in drawing horses in any stage of action—running, rearing, or fighting.  He was also adept at the fine art of illustrating the human body.  The horse and rider in this painting are the only objects to be viewed.  There is no background or foreground. The emphasis is on the rider and horse.

The painting is signed Tahoma and dated 1941 in lower right along with his traditional cartouche illustrating the next scene where the horse is still running. Tahoma almost always signed his name and a title of the paining on verso but this painting was delivered to us framed and the back of it is not visible so we do not know if he signed the back or not. The title "I am a Warrior" is penciled on the brown paper on verso.

Condition: appears to be in original condition but has not been examined out of the frame.

Recommended Reading:  Quincy Tahoma, the Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist by Charnell Havens

Provenance: from the collection of a family from Richmond, Virginia