The Half-Breed is a problematic painting, not least because of its title, a derogatory term for a biracial Native American person. The circumstances of its creation are a mystery. Who it pictures and why it was made are not known. The artist likely donated it, along with Chief Deer (Sioux Indian), to the Gallup Art Center. The two paintings are almost identical in size, and the possibility that they are a set raises the question of what Albert Delmont Smith meant to convey by the comparison. The Half-Breed has not been displayed by Gallup’s public library for some time, and suffered damage long ago due to improper storage.
New Deal Contribution: Contributing Artists
Chief Deer (Sioux Indian)
This painting by Albert Delmont Smith, a New York City-based society portraitist, is an enigma. The sitter has not been identified and it is not known for whom or for what reason it was made. It is likely the painting was donated by the artist to the Gallup Art Center, along with The Half-Breed (which may or may not be a companion portrait).
Untitled (Grand Canyon)
Edgar Alwin Payne’s paintings are often designed not just to show the viewer the landscape, but to help them imagine themselves within it. In Untitled (Grand Canyon), Payne positions the viewer a short distance down a canyon wall trail. This perspective is more intimate than an aerial view or the panorama visible from the canyon’s rim. Immersed within the canyon, the viewer is dwarfed by its hugeness but can also appreciate the architectural features of the canyon walls.
Mesa Redonia
In his how-to book Composition of Outdoor Painting (1941), Payne described his lofty aim to share the “spiritual flow which encircles animate and inanimate nature—the rhythm of life and the universe” in his paintings. Mesa Redonia (the title appears to be a misnomer for an unidentified landmark) is a prime example of his use of brushstroke, color, and lighting to create atmospheric and mood effects and evoke a sense of awe and wonder.
Canyon de Muerto
Edgar Alwin Payne first visited and painted Canyon de Chelly—a cluster of several canyons, including Canyon del Muerto, in northeastern Arizona—in 1917.1 Commissioned by the Santa Fe Railroad to record the journey from Albuquerque to California, Payne spent four months exploring the canyons, and the artwork he produced cemented his status as one of the period’s leading Western American artists. In Canyon de Muerto, Payne is largely concerned with capturing the scale of the canyon’s 1,000-foot-tall walls. The painting is composed so that the sandstone rock formations extend beyond the boundaries of the frame, taking up over two-thirds of the canvas and rationing the view of the sky. Two strategically positioned horseback riders provide the viewer a reference point for apprehending such dramatic proportions.
Horses & Whiskey Don’t Mix
William Robinson Leigh was a turn-of-the-20th-century aficionado of adventure and storytelling in Western American art. In Horses and Whiskey Don’t Mix, he puts the viewer in the middle of the action, as he captures a horse mid-buck and a rider mid-fall. Details such as a cowering dog, alarmed onlooker, and tumbling cowboy hat add charge to the moment, and the finer points of scattered playing cards and a discarded beer bottle help the viewer to imagine the plot.
Untitled (Donkey Braying)
Though Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington is best known for creating several of New York City’s major equestrian monuments, small animal sculptures like Untitled (Donkey Braying) were the “bread and butter” of her artistic career and are just as formidable and persuasive as their large-scale counterparts. Details such as the flick of the tail, the flare of the nostrils, the flex of the ears, and the curvature of the neck communicate this donkey’s bellicose attitude.
This piece probably made its way to the Gallup Art Center as a donation by the artist toward a potential future permanent art museum, likely at the urging of fellow NYC-based artist Albert Lorey Groll, who himself donated five artworks to Gallup.
Under Western Skies—New Mexico
Albert Lorey Groll was heralded in his time as the “greatest of American sky painters.” Over the course of his career, he frequently depicted classic Southwestern vistas of limitless sky, bountiful clouds, and the repetition of increasingly distant mesas and mountains.
Untitled (Red Rocks)
Albert Lorey Groll, a foundational Western American artist, was acclaimed for his ability to capture the sweeping blue expanse and billowing cloud formations of desert skies. In Untitled (Red Rocks), he expertly takes the viewer on a visual journey through seemingly unbounded time and space.
Enchanted Mesa
Several labels are affixed to the back of Enchanted Mesa, including one in elegant script that states “Compliments of Albert Lorey Groll.”1 These confirm that the artist donated this artwork to Gallup’s Federal Art Center in anticipation and support of the formation of a permanent museum for the community. The artist got his start as a Western American artist in the Gallup area and visited frequently from the early 1900s through the early 1940s.