Cigar Store Indian c. 1936

Here's Henry Granet's painting of a Cigar Store Indian. The scene simmers with muted reds, blues, and browns, as Granet captures a familiar icon in oil on canvas, trying to find the essence of the wooden figure. I imagine Granet standing before the original carving, squinting and tilting his head. What's it like to depict something that’s already a representation? He lays down the dark blues of the figure’s tunic, then a band of crimson for the skirt. Notice how the shadows and highlights give the figure three-dimensionality. Look at the ochre in the jewelry, like a burst of sunlight that enlivens the surface. Painting is like a conversation across time. Granet borrows from art history, but he also speaks to us, today. The subject is freighted with stereotypes, and it’s hard to look past that, but maybe Granet's painting invites us to see beyond the surface, to see the layers of history and representation.