Phippen Show Preview: The Chief’s New Gun
Update April 12, 2011: Thank you for your interest in this painting. The Chief’s New Gun has been SOLD.
The Chiefs New Gun by James Ayers, oil on canvas, 36 x 24, $9,500
My newest painting, The Chief’s New Gun depicts a late-1860s Lakota tribal leader displaying a proud acquisition: his new Sharps rifle
Composition
There are three key compositional elements to this painting:
Original study for the Chief’s New Gun
Element #1: Contour and lighting of the face
Three-dimensionality facial detail
I used Chiaroscuro, or the use of transition from light to dark to suggest three-dimensionality, for the warrior’s face. This helps define the face as the painting’s focal point.
Element #2: Strong lighting on the headdress and feathers
On the ermine and eagle feather headdress, I have used the strongest light. This lighting also helps establish your focus on his face.
Focal point of light
Element #3: Opposing angles and negative space
My favorite part of this painting is the opposing angles formed by the crossing of the butt of the gun and the spear. Such an arrangement makes a distinctive negative space to add visual interest.
Opposing angles detail
Thematic Elements
“Shirt wearer” status
The Chief’s New Gun depicts a Lakota man whose elaborate garment identifies him as a shirt wearer, or Wicasas.
According to Joseph D. Horse Capture and George P. Horse Capture in their book, Beauty, Honor, and Tradition: The Legacy of Plains Indian Shirts:
The Wicasas, or shirt wearers, were highly regarded for dedicating their lives to the welfare of the people. There are few examples of Wicasas’ shirts still in existence. Most were painted…the upper half blue, and the lower half yellow, symbolizing the sky and rock.
Notice the locks of hair on the shoulder and sleeve. These are not, as you might suspect, pieces of hair from rivals bested in battle. Instead, they are symbols of all the people in the shirt wearer’s own tribe for whom he has responsibility.
Hair lock adornment detail
Spear and shield
Before the advent of the horse and the gun, the spear and shield combination were essential for hunting, warfare, and survival.
By the date of the man depicted in this painting, these items became largely obsolete and instead served as emblems of achievement and spirituality.
Sharps rifle
In this scenario, the shirt wearer is holding his new rifle, a Sharps carbine rifle—a powerful and accurate weapon for the era. The weapon is accented with brass-head nails along the gunstock.
Detail of Sharps rifle falling-block action mechanism; Photo: James Ayers
Sharps rifles were produced by the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company in Hartford, Connecticut. The guns employed a falling block-action mechanism, which made the gun easier to fire from horseback.
Collectors: The Chief’s New Gun is available for pre-sale before the Phippen show.
I will be bringing The Chief’s New Gun with me to the Phippen Museum Western Art Show and Sale, May 28 – 30, 2011.
If you would like to add this painting to your collection before it is shown to the buying public, please contact my studio: James Ayers Studios.
