Original Painting of a Cherokee Indian on Horseback [SOLD]

As a small child, Cecil Dick spoke only Cherokee.  He was orphaned at age 12 and reared in Indian boarding schools.  He was considered an authority on Cherokee mythology and the Cherokee written language.  He attended the Santa Fe Indian School for one year, did not like the school’s flat painting style, and chose to paint in the Woodlands style with the plants, trees, and hills that were part of his Woodlands experience. He was allowed to do so.  After one year in Santa Fe, he returned to Oklahoma.

Dick did not paint on a regular basis at any time during his career.  He painted when he felt like doing so and, as a result, his work is relatively rare.  He also worked as a sign painter and a draftsman, another reason for not executing many art paintings.

The Cherokee National Museum in Tahlequah honored his work with a 50-year retrospective in 1983. The same year, he received the tribe's highest honor, the Cherokee Nation's Heritage Award, also known as the Sequoyah Medal. He was the third person to receive the award.

Dick presents us with a well-dressed Cherokee Indian on his beautiful mount.  He is exquisitely dressed in a stripe coat with a fur collar, a feathered turban, sky blue trousers and fancy moccasins. The plants are a modern version of what may be blooming fern.  The sky is layered in blended colors of blue to yellow.  The painting is signed Cecil Dick in lower right and above that name are the initials S S V S which I have been told are the initials of his name in the Cherokee alphabet.

Dorothy Dunn stated “. . . although his art has been glimpsed only occasionally since his student days, it’s well worth noting for his consistent originality.  He has always been an innovator in composition and in color while dramatizing experiences and legends of his tribe.  Balance and rhythm control the ostensibly carefree action in his pictures, which are always fascinating.  Conjured colors in combinations and application reminiscent of Gauguin produce excitement even in his simplest subjects, such as those from animal fables of the Cherokee.” Dunn, 1968 (360)

Condition: appears to be in very good condition with a minor abrasion of the paper at the nose of the horse.

Reference: Dunn, Dorothy. American Indian Painting of the Southwest and Plains Areas. 1968

Provenance: from a collector of Native American art from Colorado