Original Navajo Painting of Young Women on Horseback by Harrison Begay

This painting was created by influential Diné artist Harrison Begay.  It’s a large, lively scene featuring two young Diné women on horseback.  They’re moving quickly across the desert, staring straight ahead, with grins on their faces.  One is positioned behind and closer to the viewer than the other, placing the horse-and-rider pairs within opposite corners.  In the lower right corner, a small dog keeps pace.  Near the upper left corner, a trio of birds moves in the same direction.

The image feels graceful and well-balanced, with each of the procession’s many participants comfortably occupying their own space.  For the world around them, Begay took creative liberties, shifting the brown earth into a soft purple tone and adding stylish sun and cloud symbols.  There’s a lot happening here, but it never feels busy or unnatural.  Rather, it feels like Begay painted from memory and added a few of his favorite symbolic elements.  This is a fine example of Harrison Begay’s work.

The painting is signed Haskay Yahne Yah in lower left and Harrison Begay in lower right.  It is framed in a simple wood frame under two layers of tan matting.

Harrison Begay (1917-2012) Haskay Yahne Yah - The Wandering Boy was a world-renowned Diné (Navajo) painter who is generally regarded as one of the most successful and influential early Native American painters.  Begay studied under Dorothy Dunn at the Santa Fe Indian School in the 1930s, and then attended colleges in North Carolina and Arizona. From 1942 to 1945, he served in the US Army Signal Corps.  In 1947, Begay returned to the Navajo reservation, where he enjoyed a long and productive career as a painter. He is known to have continued painting into his 90s. Begay passed away in 2012, leaving behind a large body of work and a legacy in the world of Native art.

Condition: excellent condition 

Provenance: this Harrison Begay Original Painting of Young Women on Horseback is private Arizona collection

Recommended Reading: Visions and Voices: Native American Painting from the Philbrook Museum of Art by Suzanne Abel-Vidor, et al