Page 18 - 2021 March Sealed Bid Catalogue

Lot 7—GERARD CURTIS DELANO—The Hunter
In the spring of 1890, Gerard Curtis Delano was born in Marion, Massachusetts. A descendent of a French Huegonot Pilgrim who arrived at Plymouth in 1621, Delano’s family roots in the eastern shores of the Americas date back over 250 years.
The artist’s biography follows a humble path of progression through chapters as a carpenter, advertiser, and illustrator. Eventually, Delano was to become a prominent member of the twentieth-century wave of Western artists that accepted and advanced the torches of the genre lit by Charles Russell and Frederic Remington.12
In his essay entitled Delano: His Artistic Achievement, Paul Rossi celebrates the distinguished, and distinguishable talents of Gerard Curtis Delano. A former director of the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, Rossi writes:
It is interesting to note that although Delano studied with such prominent artists as Harvey Dunn, N.C. Wyeth, George Bridgeman, Frank Vincent Dumond, and others, the styles of these great teachers are not clearly apparent in his work. He developed his own unique style befitting his temperament and the elements he particularly desired to communicate.
...He worked with a limited palette, using pure color to produce the subtle hues he desired. His colors are brighter than those of his predecessors who painted the West, or his contemporaries. This alone gives his work great individuality. A Delano painting can be identified about as far away as one can see it.13
Later, Rossie continues with a discussion of Delano’s unique artistic attributes for which he is known:
While his stark composition may lack the grandeur of Albert Bierstadt or Thomas Moran, his message is often more direct, more intimate. The majority of his Navajo works are still fresh and contemporary. They have an ageless aura that all true art possesses. In painting the Navajo, Delano was never trite. He was too honest and too familiar with his subject to allow himself to indulge in false sentimentality.
...In representational, documentary art, the painting is often a window; the viewer stands inside, looking out. Delano invites the viewer “into” the scene through the simplification, strong designs, and the sunny, non-threatening atmospheres. Not all Navajo lived as Delano portrayed them. To a degree, he presents us with an illusion that is not forbidding, not hostile. His paintings evoke peace and contentment.14
The Hunter, perfectly illustrates Delano’s ability to draw the viewer into the scene. Delano’s masterful use of both the absence and exaggeration of color and detail result in an intentional guidance of the viewer’s eye. An ethereal mist in the background dissolves any line of horizon and silences the gulls hanging in the sky above. By limiting this perspective of depth, Delano creates an intimate engagement with the subjects. The quiet, contemplative gaze of both man and dog immediately encourage a similar moment of reflection in the observer. Advancing from these central figures, up the bold detail of the birch canoe, toward the unblemished reflections in the foreground, this movement of the eye effectively draws the viewer into the stillness of the scene.