Painting of the Day, November 25, 2011

By Donna Poulton

“Emaciated to a degree, my eyes sunken, and clothes all torn into tatters from hunting our animals through the brush.  My hands were in a dreadful state; my fingers were frost-bitten, and split at every joint; and suffering at the same time from diarrhea and symptoms of scurvy…” -- Solomon Nunes Carvalho

Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts.

Natural Obelisks, Steel engraving from the prospectus for John Charles Fremont’s Memoirs of “My Life,” based on a daguerreotype by Solomon Nunes Carvalho.

Solomon Nunes Carvalho’s journal chronicles his ill-fated expedition with John C. Fremont to assess a possible route for the transcontinental railroad in 1853. Carvalho was hired as the photographer because he could handle special chemicals that could withstand the obstacles of extreme cold and dampness. Caught by heavy winter storms, the group was reduced to eating the hides and hooves of their pack mules.

Shortly before the group stumbled into Parowan, Utah and were rescued, Carvalho wrote: “The nearer I approached the settlement, the less energy I had at my command…” He had lost a third of his body weight, weighing only 107 pounds, “I was emaciated to a degree, my eyes sunken, and clothes all torn into tatters from hunting our animals through the brush. My hands were in a dreadful state; my fingers were frost-bitten, and split at every joint; and suffering at the same time from diarrhea and symptoms of scurvy…”

“Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts”

"Painters of Utah's Canyons and Deserts" - By Donna L. Poulton and Vern G. Swanson - Gibbs Smith Publishing

-- Jacket Cover: Edgar Payne, "Red Mesa, Monument Valley, Utah" Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

Famous movie director John Ford once exclaimed, “…Monument Valley was my greatest star.” 

--James Swinnerton, “Desert Clouds”  Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

But long before Ford lionized these great icons of the southwest, paintings of the sweeping desert and colorful canyon country of Utah’s plateau province had captured the popular imagination of American and European audiences.

--Salomon Nunes Carvalho, “Natural Obelisks” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

--Thomas Moran in Zion Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

Vividly illustrated and exhaustively researched, “Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts” is the first comprehensive history of the artists who painted Utah’s Red Rock with more than 300 paintings spanning 155 years of art.

--David Meikle “View of Zion Canyon” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

--Clay Wagstaff “Late October Evening” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

The book explores the contrasts between painters who called Utah home and those who explored and visited.  The book looks at lively anecdotes of the “artist as explorer,” including John Wesley Powell’s harrowing trip down the Colorado River, artist Solomon Nunes Carvalho’s recovery from the brink of starvation, and Richard Kern’s death at the hands of the Paiutes.

--David Meikle “Mount Carmel Afternoon” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

--Edie Roberson “Annie’s Trip to Southern Utah” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

Love of the western landscape has to do with the capacity of the viewer to experience vast space.  To appreciate the desert terrain, one has to be comfortable with an inscrutable universe.  Whether existential or spiritual, these themes are evoked in the modern paintings of Ed Mell, Conrad Buff, Maynard Dixon, Gary E. Smith and many others.

--Ed Mell “Canyon Light and Rain” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

--Gary E. Smith “Canyon Dweller” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts