Object Details
Artist
Ila McAfee Turner, born Gunnison, CO 1897- died Pueblo, CO 1995
Exhibition Label
Two mountain lions gaze serenely over their home range from atop a ridge of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Artist Ila McAfee Turner brought out the gentle beauty and fleeting companionship of these big predators during the days a newly mated pair spends together. During the rest of the year the mature cats live in separate territories.
Turner lived in Taos, New Mexico, but was well acquainted with this dramatic, steep-sided Colorado canyon and its animal inhabitants. She had grown up riding horseback around her family's ranch outside the mining town of Gunnison, Colorado. In a song titled "Did You Ever Hear of Gunnison?" the artist described her childhood home as she showed these mountain lions, "way up there, in thin clean air, far away from anywhere, up on the beautiful wester slope, high in the rugged Rocky Mountains."1934: A New Deal for Artists exhibition label
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of Labor
Date
1933-1934
Object number
1964.1.80
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Painting
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
36 1/8 x 42 in. (91.9 x 106.8 cm)
See more items in
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department
Painting and Sculpture
Data Source
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Topic
Landscape\mountain
Landscape\rocks
Animal\cougar
New Deal\Public Works of Art Project\New Mexico
Link to Original Record
Record ID
saam_1964.1.80