J R Willis (1876 to 1960)
Gallup, New Mexico
Hand colored photograph in original frame
8 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches including frame (21.6 x 31.8 cm)
Provenance: Utah trade
Two Navajo men are seated on open ground at the edge of a low rise, one in profile with his hands raised before him, the other reclining against a folded blanket. A gnarled juniper fills the left of the composition, its trunk twisted and its roots exposed above the sand, with an open plain and a distant mesa beyond under a heavy cloud. The color is applied by hand over the photographic print, worked most strongly in the blue and white geometric blanket at the left, the red headband and silver necklace and cuff at the right, and the green of the juniper foliage. The print is signed J R Willis at the lower right within the image and retains its original moulded wood frame.
Joseph Roy Willis (1876 to 1960) was born in Screven County, Georgia, and began his career as a newspaper cartoonist and fashion illustrator for the Atlanta Constitution. He studied painting in New York with Robert Henri around 1908, then worked in Hollywood painting backdrops for Universal Studios and spent roughly a decade on the vaudeville circuit as a chalk talk artist. In 1917 he settled in Gallup, New Mexico, where he ran a camera store and photography studio and helped establish the Inter Tribal Indian Ceremonial. He toured the Navajo Nation and the pueblos of Zuni, Hopi, Laguna, and Acoma making photographs, which he published as an extensive line of scenic postcards and used as source material for his paintings. He moved to Old Town Albuquerque in the early 1930s and continued to paint there until the end of his life.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
J R Willis (1876 to 1960)
Gallup, New Mexico
Hand colored photograph in original frame
8 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches including frame (21.6 x 31.8 cm)
Provenance: Utah trade
Two Navajo men are seated on open ground at the edge of a low rise, one in profile with his hands raised before him, the other reclining against a folded blanket. A gnarled juniper fills the left of the composition, its trunk twisted and its roots exposed above the sand, with an open plain and a distant mesa beyond under a heavy cloud. The color is applied by hand over the photographic print, worked most strongly in the blue and white geometric blanket at the left, the red headband and silver necklace and cuff at the right, and the green of the juniper foliage. The print is signed J R Willis at the lower right within the image and retains its original moulded wood frame.
Joseph Roy Willis (1876 to 1960) was born in Screven County, Georgia, and began his career as a newspaper cartoonist and fashion illustrator for the Atlanta Constitution. He studied painting in New York with Robert Henri around 1908, then worked in Hollywood painting backdrops for Universal Studios and spent roughly a decade on the vaudeville circuit as a chalk talk artist. In 1917 he settled in Gallup, New Mexico, where he ran a camera store and photography studio and helped establish the Inter Tribal Indian Ceremonial. He toured the Navajo Nation and the pueblos of Zuni, Hopi, Laguna, and Acoma making photographs, which he published as an extensive line of scenic postcards and used as source material for his paintings. He moved to Old Town Albuquerque in the early 1930s and continued to paint there until the end of his life.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
