San Ildefonso Pueblo Female Rainbow Dancers [SOLD]

This painting of four female Rainbow Dancers was completed the year Peña passed away.  It may have been among the last he painted, yet, the figures were well executed and the painting was precise.  He obviously was in good health when he completed this one.

José Encarnacion Peña (1902-1979) Soqween - So Kwa A Weh (Frost on the Mountain) was painting at San Ildefonso at the same time as Tonita Peña, Ricahard Martínez, Luís Gonzales, Abel Sánchez, and Romando Vigil. He was not very productive in the early years but became so about ten years before he passed away. He is represented in the collections of the Laboratory of Anthropology, Santa Fe; Museum of New Mexico; Denver Art Museum; and many others.  He had been a student of Dorothy Dunn at The Studio of the Santa Fe Indian School in the early 1930s.

Condition:  The painting of San Ildefonso Pueblo Female Rainbow Dancers is in original excellent condition.  It is not framed; however, we will have it framed if the purchaser wishes for us to do so.

Provenance: this Original Painting of a Rainbow Dance Ceremony is from the artist’s estate, passed from his wife to her grandson, from whom we acquired it

Recommended Reading:  American Indian Painting of the Southwest and Plains Areas by Dorothy Dunn.