Victor Higgins, Taos, New Mexico, about 1921. Oil on canvas; 52 x 56 in. Gift from Dr. George C. Peck and Catherine M. Peck, 2013.462

The Petrie Institute of Western American Art

Victor Higgins, Taos, New Mexico, about 1921. Oil on canvas; 52 x 56 in. Gift from Dr. George C. Peck and Catherine M. Peck, 2013.462

Painting of the New Mexico canyons

Collection Highlights

Browse more objects from the Western American Art department in our online collection.

Charles Bird King

Hayne Hudjihini (Eagle of Delight)

Charles Bird King, Eagle of Delight, about 1822. Oil on panel; 17 x 13 in.
William Sr. and Dorothy Harmsen Collection, 2001.462

Long Jakes, "The Rocky Mountain Man"

Charles Deas

Long Jakes, "The Rocky Mountain Man"
Charles Deas originally named this painting “Long Jacques” to recognize the prominent role of French men in the North American fur trade. From the earliest contact in the 1500s and 1600s, France, Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, and eventually the United States trapped and traded a variety of animal furs, many of which were sent back to Europe to make fashionable clothes. This trade created wealth for many but also worsened conflicts over land and resources. Charles Deas tituló esta pintura inicialmente “Long Jacques” para conmemorar la destacada participación de los franceses en el comercio de pieles de Norteamérica. Desde los primeros contactos en los siglos XVI y XVII, Francia, Gran Bretaña, los Países Bajos, España y, más tarde, Estados Unidos se dedicaron a la caza de animales para comerciar sus pieles, enviando gran parte de ellas a Europa para la elaboración de prendas de moda. Este comercio creó riqueza para muchos, pero también agravó los conflictos por las tierras y los recursos naturales.

Charles Deas,Long Jakes, "The Rocky Mountain Man", 1844. Oil on canvas; 30 x 25 in. Denver Art Museum: Jointly owned by the Denver Art Museum and the American Museum of Western Art---The Anschutz Collection. Purchased in memory of Bob Magness with funds from 1999 Collectors' Choice, Sharon Magness, Mr. & Mrs. William D. Hewit, Carl & Lisa Williams, Estelle Rae Wolf - Flowe Foundation and the T. Edward and Tullah Hanley Collection by exchange, 1998.241

Yosemite

Thomas Hill

Yosemite

Born in Birmingham, England, Thomas Hill moved to Massachusetts in 1844 and then to California in 1861. This painting, one of his earliest of Yosemite, depicts the Merced River and Half Dome. Artworks such as this helped inspire the first piece of conservation legislation: in 1864, during the Civil War, President Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant, which set aside the area for public recreation and enjoyment.

Nacido en Birmingham, Inglaterra, Thomas Hill se mudó a Massachusetts en 1844 y después a California en 1861. Esta pintura, una de las primeras que pintó de Yosemite, muestra el río Merced y la formación rocosa llamada Half Dome. Obras como esta inspiraron la primera ley conservacionista: en 1864, durante la Guerra Civil, el presidente Lincoln firmó la Cesión de Yosemite, que reservaba el área para recreación y disfrute público.

Thomas Hill, Yosemite, 1865. Oil paint on canvas; 30 x 44 in. Denver Art Museum: Funds from Henry Roath, 2019.539.

Thomas Moran

Sunset, Green River Butte

Thomas Moran, Sunset, Green River Butte, 1915. Oil on canvas; 10 ¼ x 12 ¼ in. Gifted by the Roath Collection at the Denver Art Museum, 2013.110

 

Frederic Remington

The Broncho Buster

Frederic Remington, The Broncho Buster, modeled 1895 (cast before May 1902), bronze (Roman Bronze Works, Cast number 12); 23 1/4 x 22 x 13 in. Gift of the Roath Collection at the Denver Art Museum, 2013.91. Photography © Denver Art Museum

Charles Marion Russell

In the Enemy's Country

Because of his experience working with cattle, his friendships with Native Americans, and his talent with paintbrush and clay, the self-taught Charles Marion Russell became a preeminent artist of the Old West. While Russell’s subjects were meticulously observed, they were also a product of a natural storyteller’s lively imagination. Here, he captures the glowing jewel tones of Montana skies and confident yet careful Kootenai hunters striding alongside their horses, which are draped to appear like bison, to safely travel through enemy Blackfeet country.

Su experiencia de trabajo con ganado, sus amistades entre los nativos y su talento con el pincel y la arcilla hicieron de Charles Marion Russell un artista notable del Viejo Oeste, incluso siendo autodidacto. Si bien sus temas eran producto de una observación meticulosa, también los animaba la viva imaginación de este narrador innato. Aquí capta los tonos radiantes del cielo de Montana al fondo de unos cazadores kootenai que avanzan resueltos y a la vez cautelosos junto a sus caballos, cubiertos para que parezcan bisontes, a fin de atravesar a salvo el territorio enemigo de los blackfeet.

Charles Marion Russell, In the Enemy’s Country, 1921. Oil paint on canvas; 24 x 36 in. Denver Art Museum: Gift of the Magness Family in memory of Betsy Magness, 1991.751. Photo by Christina Jackson, courtesy Denver Art Museum

Victor Higgins

Taos, New Mexico

Mabel Dodge Luhan, a patron of the arts who lived in Taos, wrote that Victor Higgins “can say more with his pearly tones than most painters do with the whole solid color scale.” Using those pearly tones, Higgins evoked crisp, winter air and contrasted sloping hills with sharp, blue shadows. A sturdy line of adobe architecture nestled beneath soaring mountains underscores what Luhan called his “dramatic appreciation” of the region’s sublime landscapes and its people.

Según Mabel Dodge Luhan, una mecenas de las artes que vivía en Taos, Victor Higgins “puede decir más con sus tonos nacarados que lo que dicen la mayoría de los pintores con toda la escala de colores sólidos”. Usando esos tonos nacarados, Higgins evocó el fresco aire invernal y contrastó colinas de suaves pendientes con intensas sombras azules. Una línea sólida de arquitectura de adobe cobijada bajo unas montañas majestuosas subraya lo que Luhan llamó su “apreciación dramática” de los sublimes paisajes y la gente de esta región.

Victor Higgins, Taos, New Mexico, about 1921. Oil on canvas; 52 x 56 in. Denver Art Museum: Gift from Dr. George C. Peck and Catherine M. Peck, 2013.462

E. Martin Hennings

Rabbit Hunt

Born in Chicago, E. Martin Hennings studied in Munich and traveled through Europe before visiting Taos in 1917. Rather than placing Native Americans in an imagined past, Hennings observed their lifestyle in the present. In this painting, a dark storm fills the background and pushes the brightly lit foreground figures toward the viewer. The Native Americans wear moccasins and woven blankets as well as nontraditional clothing such as a tennis sweater and neckties.

Nacido en Chicago, E. Martin Hennings estudió en Múnich y viajó por Europa antes de visitar Taos en 1917. En lugar de representar a los indígenas en un pasado imaginario, prefirió observar su estilo de vida en el presente. Aquí, una tormenta oscura llena el fondo del cuadro y empuja hacia el espectador las figuras iluminadas en el primer plano. Los indígenas usan mocasines y mantas tejidas, además de ropa no tradicional como un suéter de tenis y corbata.

E. Martin Hennings, Rabbit Hunt, about 1925. Oil on canvas; 35 ½ x 39 ½ in. Denver Art Museum: William Sr. and Dorothy Harmsen Collection, 2001.449

 

Robert Henri

Tom Po Qui (Water of Antelope Lake/Indian Girl/Ramoncita)

After growing up in Cozad, Nebraska, and Denver, Henri eventually moved to New York City where he became a painter and arts educator. In 1913, he traveled to southern California where he met the Tewa artist Tom Po Qui who was visiting from P'ohwhóge Owingeh (San Ildefonso Pueblo). With quick, gestural brushstrokes, Henri depicts her colorful clothing, forthright gaze, and glints of light on her silver squash blossom necklace.

Robert Henri, quien creció en Cozad, Nebraska, y en Denver, se radicó más tarde en Nueva York, donde fue pintor y profesor de arte. En 1913, viajó al sur de California y allí conoció a la artista tewa Tom Po Qui, que había ido de visita desde P’ohwhóge Owingeh (Pueblo San Ildefonso). Con pinceladas rápidas y gestuales, Henri capta el colorido atuendo de la joven, su mirada directa y los destellos de luz sobre su collar de plata con diseños de flor de calabaza.

 

Robert Henri, Tom Po Qui (Water of Antelope Lake/Indian Girl/Ramoncita), 1914. Oil on canvas; 40 ½ x 32 ½ in. William Sr. and Dorothy Harmsen Collection at the Denver Art Museum, 2001.461. 

Marsden Hartley

New Mexico Recollection #6

Marsden Hartley traveled to New Mexico for the first and only time in 1918. He found the Southwest both inspiring and challenging, writing, “There is nothing in conventional esthetics that will express the red deposits, the mesas, and the Canyon of the Rio Grande.”  Even after moving away, he continued to ponder the Southwest, later producing the New Mexico Recollections series, including this work, in Berlin. He reprised the subject in unconventional ways, using atypical colors and little detail.

Marsden Hartley viajó a Nuevo México por primera y única vez en 1918. El Suroeste le pareció inspirador y a la vez desafiante: “No existe nada en la estética convencional que pueda expresar los depósitos rojos en la roca, las mesas, el cañón del río Grande”. Incluso ya lejos, siguió recordando el Suroeste y produjo, desde Berlín, la serie Recuerdos de Nuevo México, que incluye esta obra. Luego retomó el tema en formas menos convencionales, con colores atípicos y pocos detalles.

Marsden Hartley, New Mexico Recollection #6, 1922. Oil on canvas; 25 ¼ x 35 ½ in. Denver Art Museum: William Sr. and Dorothy Harmsen Collection, 2001.455

Kenneth Miller Adams

Reapers (Harvest)

Kenneth Miller Adams studied in France and Italy before moving to Taos in 1924, where he became interested in the local Spanish American population. Here, he surrounds the strong bodies of two female workers with golden harvest tones. The viewer’s eye travels around the composition—from the upright woman in the green dress, through her sheaf of wheat, and down the stooping woman’s back and arm. This movement imitates the endless motion of these women’s exhausting labor.

Después de sus estudios en Francia e Italia, Kenneth Miller Adams se instaló en Taos en 1924, en donde se despierta su interés por la población hispanoamericana local. En esta obra, envuelve los cuerpos sólidos de dos trabajadoras con los tonos dorados de la época de la cosecha. La vista de espectador recorre la composición, desde la mujer erguida en su vestido verde hacia su gavilla de trigo, y baja por la espalda y el brazo de la mujer encorvada. Este recorrido visual replica el movimiento repetitivo del agotador trabajo de estas mujeres.

Kenneth Miller Adams, Reapers (Harvest), 1946. Oil on canvas; 40 x 32 in. Denver Art Museum: Gift from Dr. George C. Peck and Catherine M. Peck, 2013.466. © The Estate of Kenneth Miller Adams

Ethel Magafan

Springtime in the Mountains
Ethel Magafan grew up in Colorado and studied with Frank Mechau, who taught her the technique of mural painting. She won numerous government-funded mural commissions before relocating to Woodstock, New York. There, Magafan established a long and successful career as an artist. This painting reflects her embrace of abstraction combined with her love of the Colorado Rockies, to which she regularly returned for inspiration. Ethel Magafan se crió en Colorado y estudió con Frank Mechau, de quien aprendió la técnica de la pintura mural. Ganó numerosas comisiones de murales financiada por el gobierno antes de reubicarse en Woodstock, Nueva York. Allí, Magafan gozó de una larga y exitosa carrera como artista. Esta pintura evidencia su adopción de la abstracción, además de su amor por las montañas Rocosas de Colorado, a las que regresaba regularmente para inspirarse.

Ethel Magafan, Springtime in the Mountains, c. 1961. Tempera paint on board; 40 x 50 in. Denver Art Museum: Julie and Robert Lewis Collection at the Denver Art Museum, 2018.656.

Department Staff

JR (Jennifer R.) Henneman, Director and Curator of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art

JR (Jennifer R.) Henneman received her doctoral degree in 19th century British and American art and visual culture at the University of Washington in 2016. Upon her arrival at the Denver Art Museum, Jennifer co-curated Backstory: Western American Art in Context in collaboration with History Colorado. More recently, she published an essay on Annie Oakley in Britain in The Popular Frontier (ed. Frank Christianson, 2017), co-curated and contributed to the catalog for Natural Forces: Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington (2020), and edited and contributed to The American West in Art: Selections from the Denver Art Museum (2020).

Meg Selig, Curatorial Assistant

Meg Selig is the Curatorial Assistant for the Petrie Institute of Western American Art. She has a master’s degree in art history, and has been working at the museum since 2015. She has worked on several exhibitions for the museum, including A Place in the Sun: The Southwest Paintings of Walter Ufer & E. Martin Hennings, The Western: An Epic in Art and Film, The Light Show, and Natural Forces: Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington.

Lauren Thompson, Interpretive Specialist

Lauren Thompson is Interpretive Specialist for European and American Art Before 1900 and for the Petrie Institute of Western American Art at the Denver Art Museum, where she has been interpretation lead on Glory of Venice: Masterworks of the Renaissance, Degas: A Passion for Perfection, and Natural Forces: Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington, among other exhibitions. Prior to coming to the DAM, she served as director of programs at the Ann Arbor Art Center, and worked at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston where she was named Museum Educator of the Year in 2011 by the Texas Art Education Association. Lauren received her bachelor's in art history and communication from Trinity University and her master's in art history from the University of Denver.

Department History

The Denver Art Museum has collected and exhibited Western American art for more than sixty years. In the 1950s, led by Royal Hassrick, the museum’s first curator of Western art—and with grants from the Boettcher Foundation, the Frederick G. Bonfils Foundation, the Fred E. Gates Fund, and the Lawrence Phipps Foundation—the museum purchased a group of exceptional works by early artists in the American West including William Jacob Hays and Alfred Jacob Miller. Important acquisitions and gifts continued through the years, with the addition of significant work by Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Remington, Charles Marion Russell, and Charles Deas.

In 2001, the museum received a transformative gift of western American art from William Sr. and Dorothy Harmsen that substantially broadened the museum’s holdings. Joan Carpenter Troccoli, PhD, previously director of Gilcrease Museum, joined by associate curator Ann Daley, established an Institute of Western American Art and initiated the annual publication of the scholarly journal Western Passages. After an extraordinary lead gift from Tom and Jane Petrie to partially endow the department in 2007, the institute was renamed the Petrie Institute of Western American Art, and by 2010, the Petrie Institute was fully endowed with donations from dozens of contributors. With this endowment, the institute is able to continue sponsoring symposia, speakers, and publications that further our knowledge of Western American art.

In 2005, longtime museum director Peter H. Hassrick (son of Royal Hassrick) came out of retirement to "finish some family business" by becoming curator and director of the institute. He introduced an annual symposium that remains a signature program for the institute. In 2009, Thomas Brent Smith became the director and curator of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art. Under his leadership, the department has embarked on an ambitious program of exhibitions and publications. In 2016, Jennifer R. Henneman, PhD, joined the curatorial team and began organizing exhibitions and expanding the collection through acquisition of works by women and artists of color.

Denver collector Henry Roath made a game-changing gift when he donated more than 50 western paintings and sculptures in 2013. Strong in work by the Taos Society of Artists, the Roath Collection includes paintings that are among those artists’ best. In 2014, the museum further expanded its holdings by acquiring, through gift and purchase, the collection of Dr. George C. and Catherine M. Peck, which further strengthened the museum’s holdings in Southwestern paintings. Another significant strength of the collection is due to the efforts of the Contemporary Realists group (now DAM Westerners), founded by James Wallace, which over the past twenty-five years has added more than sixty artworks to the collection by artists from our region who choose to work in a representational mode. Additionally, the department has compiled an unparalleled collection of bronzes, including what many consider to be Frederic Remington’s single greatest cast, The Cheyenne, the iconic End of the Trail by James Earl Fraser, and a group of works by nationally renowned Denver artist Alexander Phimister Proctor.

Always working diligently to expand the collection in compelling and exciting ways, the department hopes to further its reach by including works by artists of the Pacific Northwest and California, as well as collecting additional works by women and under-represented artists, which will celebrate the intrinsic diversity of the American West and tell a richer and more complete story of the region’s artistic legacy.

Symposia

In 2007, former director of the institute Peter H. Hassrick initiated the Petrie Institute of Western American Art’s annual symposium. Each year, invited scholars of art and history present their thoughts and research on an array of topics related to the art of the West to enthusiastic audiences.

For more information, email symposium@denverartmuseum.org.

Current and past symposia includes:

2024: Art and Ambition: Creative Partnerships in the American West

2023: Near East to Far West: A Closer Look

2022: Earthworks: Land Art in the West

2021: Great Women and the Arts of the West

2020: Natural Forces: Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington

2019: Familiar Images: Icons of International Frontiers

2018: Beyond America’s Heartland: Regionalism and the Art of the American West

2017: Set in the West: Telling Tales in Art and Film

2016: Walter Ufer and E. Martin Hennings: An In-Depth Look

2015: Western Character: Expressions of Identity and Place in Portraiture

2014: Journeys West

2013: Decades: An Expanded Context for Western American Art, 1900-1940

2012: Lest We Forget California: Artists in the Golden West

2011: A Distant View: European Perspectives on Western American Art

2010: Shaping the West: American Sculptors of the 19th Century

2009: Taos Traditions: Artists in an Enchanted Land

2008: Heart of the West: New Art/New Thinking

2007: Redrawing Boundaries: Perspectives on Western American Art

Publication History

Since its inception, PIWAA has actively published significant contributions to the field of western American art, including award-winning exhibition catalogs. Western Passages, its signature scholarly series, includes essays on the art of the American West by curators and historians. A collection catalog, The American West in Art, provides an updated account of our growing collection with wide-ranging essays by Thomas Brent Smith, Jennifer R. Henneman, and Molly Medakovich.

Publications:

  • West Point Points West, Vol. 1 of Western Passages (Denver Art Museum, 2002)
  • Sweet on the West: How Candy Built a Colorado Treasure, Vol. 2 of Western Passages (Denver Art Museum, 2003)
  • Redrawing Boundaries: Perspectives on Western American Art, Vol. 3 of Western Passages (Denver Art Museum, 2007)
  • Heart of the West: New Painting and Sculpture of the American West, Vol. 4 of Western Passages (Denver Art Museum, 2007)
  • Colorado: The Artist’s Muse, Vol. 5 of Western Passages (Denver Art Museum, 2008)
  • Peter H. Hassrick and Elizabeth J. Cunningham, In Contemporary Rhythm: The Art of Ernest L. Blumenschein (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008)
  • Carol Clark, Charles Deas and 1840s America, Vol. 4 of The Charles M. Russell Center Series on Art and Photography of the American West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009)
  • Joan Carpenter Troccoli, ed., The Masterworks of Charles M. Russell: A Retrospective of Paintings and Sculpture, Vol. 6 of The Charles M. Russell Center Series on Art and Photography of the American West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009)
  • Charlie Russell and Friends, Vol. 6 of Western Passages (Denver Art Museum, 2010)
  • Shaping the West: American Sculptors of the 19th Century, Vol. 7 of Western Passages (Denver Art Museum, 2010)
  • Thomas Brent Smith, ed., Elevating Western American Art: Developing an Institute in the Cultural Capital of the Rockies, Vol. 8 of Western Passages (Denver Art Museum, 2012)
  • Thomas Brent Smith, ed., Rocky Mountain Majesty: The Paintings of Charles Partridge Adams (Denver Art Museum, 2013)
  • Decades: An Expanded Context for Western American Art, 1900–1940. Vol. 9 of Western Passages (Denver Art Museum, 2014)
  • Thomas Brent Smith and Thayer Tolles, eds., The American West in Bronze, 1850–1925 (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013)
  • Thomas Brent Smith, ed., A Place in the Sun: The Southwest Paintings of Walter Ufer and E. Martin Hennings (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016)
  • Mary-Dailey Desmarais and Thomas Brent Smith, eds., Once Upon a Time . . . The Western: A New Frontier in Art and Film (Denver: Denver Art Museum; Milan: Five Continents Editions, 2017)
  • Maggie Adler, Diana Greenwold, Jennifer R. Henneman, and Thomas Brent Smith, Homer Remington (Fort Worth: Amon Carter Museum of American Art; Denver: Denver Art Museum; Portland: Portland Museum of Art, Maine, 2020)
  • Thomas Brent Smith and Jennifer R. Henneman, eds. The American West in Art: Selections from the Denver Art Museum, Vol. 10 of Western Passages (Denver: Denver Art Museum; Milan: Five Continents Editions, 2020)