Object Record
Images
Metadata
Title |
Zuni Ceremonial Dance |
Place of Origin |
New Mexico |
Artist or Maker |
Whiteside, Frank R. (1866-1929) |
Date |
1895-1905 |
Materials |
Watercolor on Paper |
Dimension Details |
Height: 11 3/4" Width: 16 3/4" |
Description |
This watercolor is one of a series by Frank R. Whiteside depicting a rain ritual performed at the summer solstice each year by one of the Katcina cults within the Zuni society. The Zuni, one of the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico that lived in centuries-old adobe complexes, adhered to an extremely complex social and religious life. In this ceremony at the end of the ritual, over a dozen masked Katcina members are dancing in formation as some members of their tribe look on from the pueblo and others are watching the ceremony in the foreground with their backs to the viewer. This was one of the few Pueblo rituals that outsiders were permitted to view. The painting's vivid colors evoke the New Mexican landscape. A native of Philadelphia, Whiteside trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under Thomas Anshutz, and later at the Academie Julien in Paris. He subsequently held many teaching posts in Philadelphia, including a three-year instructorship at the Academy. His reputation as an artist rests largely on his somewhat impressionistic paintings of the Southwest, a region he first visited in the early 1890s and to which he returned many times. |
Provenance |
David David, Inc., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Sold to The Dietrich American Foundation, 1971 |
Object Name |
Watercolor |
Object ID |
7.8.869 |
Search Terms |
paintings |