Cigar Store Indian c. 1936

Bernard Westmacott made this watercolour, Cigar Store Indian, at an unknown date. It's a strange image with muted tones, and the red ochre of the cloak jumps out. The colour is translucent, like thin washes layered on top of each other, it reminds me of early animation where the background can be seen through the characters. It feels tentative, like the artist is feeling their way through the subject. I wonder what kind of brush was used, maybe a fine point for the details on the face. Look at how Westmacott defines the planes of the face with small marks, it’s almost like he's sculpting the form with colour. I'm reminded of Marsden Hartley’s American Indian series, which also explores themes of identity and representation, but with more intensity and symbolic weight. Like Hartley, Westmacott embraces ambiguity, and the image becomes more about the process of seeing and understanding than about any fixed meaning.