George de Forest Brush, An Aztec Sculptor, 1887
oil on panel
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift (Partial and Promised) of the Ann and Tom Barwick Family Collection
George de Forest Brush at the NGA
First Exhibition of Indian Paintings by George de Forest Brush Premieres at National Gallery of Art, WashingtonSeptember 14, 2008–January 4, 2009
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Washington, DC—The first exhibition of George de Forest Brush’s remarkable paintings of American Indians will be on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, September 14, 2008 through January 4, 2009. Inspired in part by the recent rediscovery of An Aztec Sculptor (1887), an important work missing for a century, the exhibition and its accompanying catalogue will offer groundbreaking new research on Brush’s works—long prized by collectors, yet rarely available for public viewing. George de Forest Brush: The Indian Paintings is organized by the National Gallery of Art in association with the Seattle Art Museum, where it will be on view February 26 through May 24, 2009
“With the rediscovery of lost works by Brush—two of which will enter the collection of the National Gallery as gifts—and the advent of new scholarship exploring the complex issues associated with images of native people, we are pleased to present the first exhibition focused exclusively on Brush’s paintings of American Indians,” said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. “We are grateful to our colleagues and our neighbor across the National Mall, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, for their essential contributions to the exhibition.”
George de Forest Brush (1854/1855–1941)
Born in Tennessee, raised in Brooklyn and Darien, Connecticut, Brush was “discovered” by a portraitist who admired the young boy’s drawings. He began his studies at the National Academy of Design in New York and went on to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he was a pupil of Jean-Léon Gérôme. In the spring of 1882 Brush journeyed to Wyoming and lived on the Wind River Reservation for several months before traveling north to Montana, where he spent nearly a year among the Crow. After returning east in the fall of 1883, he began teaching at the Art Students League and composing the Indian paintings that quickly brought him attention from both critics and collectors.
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