Hunting Cranes
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 28 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches
Gift of Robert Lyons, 1948
Eanger Irving Couse, ANA (1866 - 1936)
Couse arrived in Taos in 1902 and is one of the original members of the Taos School. He had studied in Paris and New York and had established a reputation as a painter, muralist and portrait artist. He was lured to New Mexico by his desire to paint the American Indian and at the suggestion of friends Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips.
Couse was primarily interested in the authenticity of the Indians he painted. Basically a studio painter, he would sketch his subjects and returned to the studio to execute the work. His favorite models were Ben Luhan and Jerri Mirabel, members of the local Pueblo; most likely the two Indians pictured in the museum's painting, Two Hunters.
Couse's work won numerous prizes, is represented in most major museums and is much collected today.
