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Lot 31
Tom Lovell(1909-1997)Quicksand - Horsehead Crossing 20 x 40in
25 November 2019, 12:00 PST
Los AngelesSold for US$150,075 inc. premium
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Tom Lovell (1909-1997)
Quicksand - Horsehead Crossing
signed and dated 'Tom Lovell NAWA © 1976' (lower left), signed again (on the reverse and backing)
oil on Masonite
20 x 40in
Painted in 1976.
signed and dated 'Tom Lovell NAWA © 1976' (lower left), signed again (on the reverse and backing)
oil on Masonite
20 x 40in
Painted in 1976.
Footnotes
Exhibition
Kerrville, Texas, Cowboy Artists of America Museum, September 16, 1983 - January 15, 1984.
Prescott, Phippen Museum, Cool, Cool, Water, March 3 -July 22, 2018.
The present work depicts a band of Comanche Indians at the infamous Horsehead Crossing, one of the few fordable points on the Pecos River in Texas during the 19th Century. It was an important site in the Old West as a crossing on the Comanche Trail, a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail route, and by the 1860s, an oasis for the first long-distance cattle drives across Texas to market in the Southwest. Horsehead Crossing was the closest watering hole within a sixty-mile radius of desert, but deadly for its quicksand, irregular currents, and periods of high salinity. It was named for the foreboding horse skulls that marked its banks. A Comanche leader is shown testing the river with the end of his lance and safeguarding the way for his party.
Tom Lovell proved in many of his paintings, including Quicksand - Horsehead Crossing that he was a master at depicting water realistically and capturing its many nuances. By devoting half of the canvas to the stream, the reflective qualities of the water and expertly-depicted ripples further the viewer's sense of what the warriors see and feel. As the Comanche travel toward the viewer in the foreground, the desert landscape behind of scrub trees and sage fades away to meet the cloud-filled, pale blue sky. The viewer's eye can take in the whole landscape at once, but his attention is focused on the lead cautiously making his way across the stream to solid ground. As always, Lovell's details of dress, weaponry, and the saddles and blankets are painted with historical accuracy and authentic detail.
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