Painting of a Pottery Design Green Parrot [SOLD]

Santana Roybal, sister of Alfonso Roybal (Awa Tsireh), was 9 years old when she attended the San Ildefonso Day School in the year 1900.  She studied under Esther Hoyt during Hoyt’s first year of teaching at the pueblo.  Santana was one of just six students in the class that first year.  She and Tonita Peña were the only two girls.  Hoyt provided her students with watercolor paints and paper and let them paint pictures of pueblo items and functions.  This was against the government’s policy of assimilating the pueblo people and divorcing them from their native ways and religion.  Hoyt apparently ignored that policy.  She continued as the teacher until 1907.

Santana eventually married Adam Martinez, oldest son of Marie and Julian Martinez. In doing so, she was destined to become a potter, which she did.  Early in her life and occasionally later in life, Santana made paintings as a relief from the tedious process of pottery making.

This painting is not dated but carries the remarks on verso: Pottery Design, Property of J. D. DeHuff, U. S. Indian School, Santa Fe, N.M.  DeHuff was Superintendent of the Santa Fe Indian School from 1916-1926, so it is safe to assume that this painting was made during those years.

Had Santana continued painting as a career, as her classmate Tonita Peña did, she would have been a very famous artist.  She was technically very proficient with paints and designs.  This painting of a mystical parrot is strong in color and expertly drawn.  Santana transferred her talent to designs on pottery.

This Painting of a Pottery Design Green Parrot is illustrated on page 194 of Through Their Eyes—Indian Painting in Santa Fe, 1918-1945 by Michelle McGeough, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, 2009 

Condition: excellent original condition

Provenance:

-        From the collection of J. D. DeHuff, Superintendent of Santa Fe Indian School, 1914-16, passed to Elizabeth DeHuff, then to Frances DeHuff Berry

-        Currently from the collection of Charlotte G. Mittler, purchased from a Santa Fe Dealer in 2005

Recommended Reading: Through Their Eyes—Indian Painting in Santa Fe, 1918-1945 by Michelle McGeough, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, 2009