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ORIGINAL CHARLES CRAIG
PAINTING
PIKES PEAK AND COG RAILWAY
Painting dimensions: 42 inches by 60 inches;
frame dimensions: 54 inches by 78 inches; in original frame.
Charles Craig was born in
Morgan City Ohio in 1846, trained initially at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine
Arts, and eventually settled in Colorado Springs, Colorado in the early
1880s. He found the Southwestern Ute Indians were of particular interest
to him and he specialized in detailing their daily. Craig often traveled
with entrepreneur Verner Z. Reed into New Mexico and Arizona to study Native
Americans, learn their mythology and understand their cultures.
This painting has been in
the same family for over fifty years, and has been kept in excellent condition.
"Mr.
Charles Craig is an artist of long residence here, and a painter of
Indians. He is a lover of nature always ready to learn from the divinest
of teachers. His natural instincts are fine for art seeing, his talent
having grown and matured almost without the training of school or master.
Mr. Craig is a faithful worker. He has been greatly aided in his
profession by Mr. Verner Z. Reed of this city, a man of large wealth with
artistic tastes and some literary achievement, being the author of a few books
that tell of western life and are illustrated by Mr. Craig. Mr. Reed has a
fine home on North Tejon Street. In that home he has some good art.
And will have a fine collection in time. Mr. Craig has worked among the
Indians of New Mexico and Colorado. His pictures are representative of
these tribes, are in demand in the East where they find purchasers at good
prices. Mr. Craig is in the fifties as to age, and lives a quiet retired
life entirely for his family and for art."
Mary A. Bartow, Colorado Springs, August 3, 1901
Verner Z. Reed began his
career as a writer of promotional pamphlets in Colorado Springs. He became
involved in Cripple Creek mining in the early 1890s. His interests there,
and his association with Cripple Creek gold baron, Winfield Scott Stratton, made
him very wealthy. Later, Reed became involved in Denver banking, and made
another fortune there. After that, he invested in Salt Creek, Wyoming oil
and, once again, made another fortune.
Charles Craig illustrated Lo-Ta-Kah,
written by Verner Z. Reed, published in 1897.
In 1881, Charles Craig was
one of the first American painters to visit Taos, New Mexico, to paint the
Native Americans, settlement, and landscape.
If you would like to inquire
about the potential purchase of this original and unique Charles Craig painting, please contact us.
Please inquire.
CONTACT
US
Charles Craig illustrated LO-TO-KAH
for Verner Z. Reed, along with another important Southwestern painter, L.
Maynard Dixon. LO-TO-KAH was written by Verner Z. Reed and published by Continental Publishing Company, New York and London, 1897.
