**Originally Listed At $750**

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Paul Forster (American, 1925-2012). "Within the North Window" oil on board, n.d. Signed with title on verso. Paul Forster was a brilliant colorist as well as a master of composition, and this painting certainly lives up to his well-deserved accolades. In "Within the North Window" a beautiful indigenous woman stands beside a horse that is enjoying the shade of a tree. Set in the Southwest, tall cliffsides rise from the boulder dotted red earth with clear blue skies beyond. The graceful woman wearing traditional clothing and jewelry stands in an elegant pose looking toward the horse with her pulled-back coiffure framing her delicate features and one arm extended. Finely rendered with a keen eye for composition and color, Forster's painting is notable not only for his remarkable artistry but also for his ethnographic intentions. Forster was an artist-as-ethnographer who aimed to preserve indigenous culture with his art. Size (sight view): 23.625" L x 35.5" W (60 cm x 90.2 cm) Size of frame: 28.7" L x 40.7" W (72.9 cm x 103.4 cm)

At the age eight, Paul Forster became the youngest member of the Albright Art Gallery Association and started studying at the Museum School with watercolorist Robert Blair. During World War II, Forster served in the Army Air Corps, and in 1952, he graduated from Brigham Young University with a Fine Arts Degree. In the late 1950s, Forster had a studio in Nevada and painted murals for the Mormon Church. In the early 1960s, he taught art and became Chairman of the Art Department of the L.D.S. Schools of the South Pacific in Tonga. In 1969, he left Brigham Young University to pursue his art full time. For the greater part of the next decade, Forster traveled throughout the American Southwest in an Airstream trailer to paint the environment and its inhabitants. In time, he moved to Oregon followed by Kansas City, but eventually returned to Arizona.

Provenance: ex-private Bishop Family Trust collection, the Trust of the late Bill Bishop, a noted antiquarian with shops in Scottsdale, Arizona and Allenspark, Colorado, USA, acquired before 2010

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#173179

Signature and title of the painting on the verso. Minor scuffs/abrasions to the painting but imagery and hues are still quite vivid. Water stains on verso at the lower end, but this does not appear to impact the painted composition. Scuffs and chips to frame as shown. Fitted with suspension wire and ready to display.