GUEST: The painting was bought by my mother-in-law in about 1930, and when she died, it came to us. And she adored Indians. So then finally, I think when she got married, her husband and she bought this.
APPRAISER: Where did they buy it?
GUEST: I am not sure. Couse was an oil painter in the '30s, right?
APPRAISER: Well, he died in 1936.
GUEST: Ah.
APPRAISER: He was a very interesting artist. He was one of the founders of the Taos school, and he was the first president of the Taos Society of Artists. His friends Blumenschein and Sharp, who he met in Paris, where they all studied in the late 1880s, had been to Taos, and they encouraged Couse to come out to Taos and work in the summers. So by 1901, Taos was a thriving art community and Couse was there with his wife, Sharp was there with his wife, and Blumenschein was also there...
GUEST: Wonderful.
APPRAISER: ...as a summer art community. They all lived and worked most of the year in New York, but what they were all most known for was their Native American subject matter and their interest in preserving the vanishing West. Couse in particular grew up in the Midwest and lived near a Chippewa tribe, so he from a very early age was interested in Native American culture. This work we know was done after he became a National Academician because he signs it in the lower left "E.I. Couse," Eanger Irving Couse, and he inscribes it "N.A.", which means National Academician.
GUEST: Ah.
APPRAISER: The National Academy was an honorary organization of artists, and they elected their members. I think that it probably dates from the late 1920s to the early 1930s because of the way the work is handled. It's very competent, but there's some generalized drawing that's a little bit more of a later, more modern painting style. Couse moved permanently to Santa Fe and Taos in the 1920s, so I do believe that this painting was done in Santa Fe or Taos.
GUEST: That could be. Yeah.
APPRAISER: The medium of this painting is oil on board. I would say a retail replacement value would be about $75,000.
GUEST: Oh, good. Yeah, great! Terrific. It's a little more than I thought, and that's wonderful.
APPRAISER: Good.
GUEST: He's worthy.
