Lot 399

Winold Reiss 1933 "The Drummers"

Estimate: $300 - $600

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $5
$50 $10
$100 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $250
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$25,000 $2,500
$100,000 $5,000
In this lot is a very fine lithograph of the 1933 "The Drummers" done by Winold Reiss. The image is of three seated Blackfeet men, Buffalo Body, Heavy Breast, and Sure Chief, drumming and singing. Buffalo Body sits in the foreground, wrapped in a blanket and holding a hand drum. His beaded pipe bag lies beside him in the lower left corner of the image. Behind Buffalo Body, on the left, one of the other two men wears a beaded buckskin shirt with ermine tails and beats a hand drum. Only the head and shoulders of the third man are visible behind Buffalo Body, on the right edge of the image. Winold Reiss (1886 –1953) was a German-born American artist and graphic designer. He grew up surrounded by art, as his father was a well-known landscape artist. Reiss became a portraitist. In 1913, he immigrated to the United States, where he was able to follow his interest in Native Americans. In 1920, he went west for the first time, working for a lengthy period on the Montana Blackfeet Reservation. Over the years, Reiss painted more than 250 works depicting Native Americans. These paintings by Reiss became known more widely beginning in the 1920s to the 1950s, when the Great Northern Railway commissioned Reiss to do paintings of the Blackfeet, which were then distributed widely as lithographed reproductions on Great Northern calendars. When he died in 1953, the Blackfeet tribe spread his ashes along the eastern edge of Glacier National Park. This lithograph is in excellent condition and displays bright colors. The lithograph is signed in the lower left corner. The lithograph is matted and framed; there is minor damage to the frame. The visible art measures 18 3/4" x 10 3/4" and the frame measures 24 1/2" X 16”.