New Aquisitions

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RALPH WALDO EMERSON MEYERS (1885-1948) Church at Ranchos de Taos, oil on board 12" x 16"signed “Frank Meyers, 1927,”lower left.

Ralph Meyers was a unique participant in the early Taos art colony - indian trader, master silversmith, weaver and adobe builder, and through dint of hard work and osmosis, became one of its most distinctive painters in the community. Meyers was part of a second stream of talented Taos artists who worked in the shadow of their more famous contemporaries. He had close personal and social relationships with many of the art luminaries of the period, and several of them had influences on his work, most notably Leon Gaspard, who remarked that Meyers was one of the finest colorists of the period. Meyer’s signature works such as the present example are exceedingly rare

FRANK JOSEPH VAVRA (1892-1967), “ A March Day, Looking Toward Boulder from Wide Acres,” Bear Peak, Eldorado Springs and the Flatirons, oil on stretched canvas 22”x29”, signed lower right “Frank J. Vavra, Colo, 1927,” title inscribed in pencil verso of stretcher A fine snow scene by Colorado’s most popular impressionist landscape painter during the 1920’s.

Jules Dahlager (1884-1952) Untitled Alaskan lake scene, a jewel-like miniature, oil on academy board 6”x7 1/2”, signed “Jules” along a diagonal, lower right hand corner, original gilt carved frame.

Basket dance at the Hopi village of old Oraibi, Arizona, ca. 1895, oil on canvas laid down on board 10 x 8 in., unsigned, attributed to Frank Paul Sauerwein, American 1871-1910. The basket dance is put on by the Lalakonti and Oqualti societies in the fall, both women's societies. The women dance outside in the plaza with baskets after 9 days of religious ceremonies in the kivas. At the end of each dance, they fling the baskets to the male spectators. Young women who are initiated into these societies are considered eligible to make baskets. In the right center of the painting, a group of men tussle for a basket thrown to them by the female figure on the right of the circle of dancing women.

All images copyright Neal R. Smith Fine Art, 2006-2007 and are not to be reproduced without our authorization.

nrsmith1@comcast.net