Cigar Store Indian c. 1937

Eugene Croe made this watercolor painting of a Cigar Store Indian, but we don't know when. There’s something immediate and folksy about the way Croe has painted this figure, but the question of the cultural legacy of these figures looms large. I can imagine him there, building up these forms, shifting and editing until they emerge. The colors are layered and textured, giving the figure depth and presence. I wonder what Croe was thinking as he made it? What does it mean to depict a wooden figure, itself a kind of depiction, with paint? There is the red of the dress and moccasins, the yellow of the cape, and the feathers on the headdress – so many colors singing together. It reminds me of the work of other painters, like Marsden Hartley, who found inspiration in folk art traditions. Artists are always in dialogue, borrowing and riffing on each other's ideas, and in the end all these works open up a space of possibilities for the viewer.