Crow, northern Plains
1870s
Rawhide, natural pigments
Height 28 1/2" (72.4 cm); width 13 1/2" (34.3 cm)
Provenance: Kenneth Canfield personal collection, Santa Fe, NM
Parfleche packets were essential storage objects across Plains cultures, made from folded rawhide prepared through the native tanning process and painted with geometric designs before folding and drying, the paint applied while the hide was still wet so that it set permanently into the surface. Crow parfleche painting is distinguished by its bold geometric vocabulary and vivid polychrome palette, the designs covering the full exterior surface of the folded packet in a composition that reads as a complete pictorial field when laid flat. Packets of this type from the 1870s represent the height of Crow parfleche production, objects of both daily utility and considerable aesthetic ambition made by women who were recognized within their communities for the quality of their painted work.
This packet is painted in a strong polychrome composition of red, yellow, green, and blue geometric forms including X motifs, triangles, and rectangles arranged within a white ground field, the colors well preserved across the full surface. The painting is consistent with Crow parfleche conventions of the period, the bold contrasting colors and confident geometric layout characteristic of the northern Plains tradition at its most direct. Provenance traces to the personal collection of Kenneth Canfield of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Crow, northern Plains
1870s
Rawhide, natural pigments
Height 28 1/2" (72.4 cm); width 13 1/2" (34.3 cm)
Provenance: Kenneth Canfield personal collection, Santa Fe, NM
Parfleche packets were essential storage objects across Plains cultures, made from folded rawhide prepared through the native tanning process and painted with geometric designs before folding and drying, the paint applied while the hide was still wet so that it set permanently into the surface. Crow parfleche painting is distinguished by its bold geometric vocabulary and vivid polychrome palette, the designs covering the full exterior surface of the folded packet in a composition that reads as a complete pictorial field when laid flat. Packets of this type from the 1870s represent the height of Crow parfleche production, objects of both daily utility and considerable aesthetic ambition made by women who were recognized within their communities for the quality of their painted work.
This packet is painted in a strong polychrome composition of red, yellow, green, and blue geometric forms including X motifs, triangles, and rectangles arranged within a white ground field, the colors well preserved across the full surface. The painting is consistent with Crow parfleche conventions of the period, the bold contrasting colors and confident geometric layout characteristic of the northern Plains tradition at its most direct. Provenance traces to the personal collection of Kenneth Canfield of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
