Have one like this?
Upload a photo for a free check of what yours may be worth.
Lot description
Kathryn Woodman Leighton 1875-1952 Cherokee Brave (Iron Eyes Cody), circa 1927 oil on canvas signed lower right: inscribed verso: Cherokee Brave Iron Eyes original Arts and Craft frame, circa 1927 Kathryn Woodman Leighton (1875–1952) is best known for her Western landscapes and her extensive body of Native American portraiture, which today can be found in several major museum collections including the Smithsonian and the Booth Museum of Western Art. After studying art at the Massachusetts Normal School, she moved to Los Angeles in 1910 and studied at the Stickney School of Art in Pasadena and with Jean Mannheim. Starting in 1918, she produced nearly 700 Native American portraits, and this work had brought her international recognition. Leighton moved within influential artistic circles and formed a close friendship with Charles Russell, whom she met at a gathering hosted by Jack Wilkinson Smith. In addition to her studio practice, Leighton was a civic-minded artist who served for several years as Vice President of the California Art Club. This compelling portrait by Kathryn Leighton depicts 'Iron Eyes Cody', a recognizable figure in 20th-century American visual culture, and was most likely painted in Los Angeles circa 1927-1930. Despite his purely Sicilian heritage, Cody was known to audiences as "Cherokee Brave," and built a prolific Hollywood career portraying Native American characters at a time when the film industry largely accepted such appropriation. Works such as this have increasingly been understood as historical documents reflecting how Native identity was constructed and consumed in American popular culture. A very similar portrait of Iron Eyes Cody by Leighton is held in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. Provenance: Collector in Scottdale