DOI issue:
No. 207 (May, 1914)
DOI article:Wray, Henry Russell: Charles Craig: painter of Indians and western scenes
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43455#0451
Charles Craig: Painter of Indians and Western Scenes
TRAILING IN
BY CHARLES CRAIG
CHARLES CRAIG: PAINTER OF IN-
DIANS AND WESTERN SCENES
BY HENRY RUSSELL WRAY
There are perhaps half a dozen
men to-day who paint Indians and Western life.
Some of these men have lived only a few months
among the scenes they illustrate. During that
time they have made many quick sketches, which
have served for material from which large paint-
ings have been worked up in subsequent years in
their studios. Their “Indians” are too often
drawn from professional “Italian” models, and
the character is necessarily vague and inaccurate.
These artists may also possess a fine collection of
Indian costumes and accessories, but it is impos-
sible that the painter should be familiar enough
with the customs of the tribes to use this parapher-
nalia correctly.
Very few men have lived for years among the
tribes and know the individuals intimately. It
takes a long time for a white man to gain the con-
fidence of a red man. To this last class belongs
Charles Craig, truly a painter of Western life, in
all its sense of arid vastness—its glory of sunlit
range and peak, or its gloom and grandeur of
canyon, upon which are staged the fast-disappear-
ing cowboy, Indian and prospector.
Craig has maintained a little studio in Colorado
Springs, Colo., almost since the town was founded,
yet eight years before this, in 1865, he caught the
first attack of Western fever, and practically fol-
lowed Greeley’s advice. He was only a youngster
then, and without much art education, but he
THE MEDICINE MAN BY CHARLES CRAIG
XCIV
TRAILING IN
BY CHARLES CRAIG
CHARLES CRAIG: PAINTER OF IN-
DIANS AND WESTERN SCENES
BY HENRY RUSSELL WRAY
There are perhaps half a dozen
men to-day who paint Indians and Western life.
Some of these men have lived only a few months
among the scenes they illustrate. During that
time they have made many quick sketches, which
have served for material from which large paint-
ings have been worked up in subsequent years in
their studios. Their “Indians” are too often
drawn from professional “Italian” models, and
the character is necessarily vague and inaccurate.
These artists may also possess a fine collection of
Indian costumes and accessories, but it is impos-
sible that the painter should be familiar enough
with the customs of the tribes to use this parapher-
nalia correctly.
Very few men have lived for years among the
tribes and know the individuals intimately. It
takes a long time for a white man to gain the con-
fidence of a red man. To this last class belongs
Charles Craig, truly a painter of Western life, in
all its sense of arid vastness—its glory of sunlit
range and peak, or its gloom and grandeur of
canyon, upon which are staged the fast-disappear-
ing cowboy, Indian and prospector.
Craig has maintained a little studio in Colorado
Springs, Colo., almost since the town was founded,
yet eight years before this, in 1865, he caught the
first attack of Western fever, and practically fol-
lowed Greeley’s advice. He was only a youngster
then, and without much art education, but he
THE MEDICINE MAN BY CHARLES CRAIG
XCIV