Kathryn Woodman Leighton
(1875-1952)
"Weaving in Her Hogan"
Oil on canvas
Signed lower right: Kathryn W. Leighton; titled and inscribed on brown paper affixed to the stretcher: "Navajo Indian Rug Weaver / Gallup, New Mexico"
44" H x 36" W

Other notes:
In her day, Kathryn Woodman Leighton was considered one of the world's most notable painters of American Indian portraits, "at a time when the subject was reserved for males."

Born in Plainfield, New Hampshire in 1875, Leighton was educated locally and taught school for three years before studying at art school in Boston. She married attorney Edward L. Leighton in 1900, and they moved west in 1910 when a planned vacation to California turned into a permanent relocation. Dedicated support from Edward enabled her to successfully mix serious artistic pursuits and practical home life. Her canvases featured portraits as well as local landscapes, especially California desert wildflowers and coastal seascapes of Laguna and Morro Bay.

A fortuitous meeting in 1924 with Charles Marion Russell at a party in Los Angeles led to an important shift in subject matter and a change to her popularity as a painter. Russell encouraged Leighton to visit the newly formed Glacier National Park in Montana, and the Leightons were invited to stay at Russell's summer home on Lake McDonald in 1925, where she reportedly painted two landscapes on the curtain dividers between the guest beds in the lodge. As a regular visitor to the park for the next few years, Leighton became enamored of the glorious landscape and of the Blackfeet Nation people she met on her many trips to Montana.

Leighton was commissioned by the Great Northern Railway to paint grand landscapes of the majestic peaks and lakes, as well as portraits of various Blackfeet elders as part of the promotion of the park. The Railway bought over twenty of Leighton's works to augment a national touring lecture series on the history of the Blackfeet. Leighton felt: "I am trying to put on canvas...the nobility of the Indian as I see him, the beauty of color, the dignity of tradition, and the fundamental beliefs of our first American people..."

At age fifty, Leighton had achieved widespread success with these portraits. They were included in major exhibitions in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston as well as in Paris and London and received critical praise. Over the years, Leighton's versatility was expressed in over 700 works. Her numerous portraits included Blackfeet, Sioux, Cherokee, Shoshone, Yakima, Arapaho, Navajo, Hopi, Pawnee, Osage, and more, as well as local Native American actors from Hollywood, notable figures of the time including Pawnee Bill, Iron Eyes Cody, Florence Collins Porter, and numerous studies of family members and friends.

Leighton died in 1952, and her Native American portraits continue to be a legacy of a well-intentioned admiration and respectful desire to retain and share important cultural details and perspectives of the First Nation people she was privileged to meet.

Visual: Overall generally good appearance. Fine craquelure and stretcher bar creases along each edge, primarily visible in raking light. Two soft pressure marks along the center of the left edge, primarily visible in raking light. Minor surface dust.

Blacklight: An occasional pea-sized (or smaller) touch-up in the background of the upper right quadrant. Long bands of possible touch-up along the extreme edges, difficult to read under uneven varnish application.

Frame: 49" H x 41" W x 2.75" D
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