HILAIRE HILER
Native Americans on Horseback.

Gouache pochoir and pencil, 1934. 233x167 mm; 9⅛x6⅝ inches (sight). Signed, dated and inscribed "Paris" in pencil, lower right recto.

Provenance: Acquired from the artist, Paris, by Marie A. Gougelman Burling, New York, 1934; gifted to current owner, private collection, Illinois.

Hiler (1898-1966) was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and spent his childhood in Providence, Rhode Island. He lived in Paris as a young man from 1919 until 1934 and frequented, with avant-garde artists and writers of the time, the Jockey Club in Montparnasse. Along with the growing number of American expatriates came an increased interest among Parisians in Native American culture, Wild West shows, and exhibitions. Perhaps whetting this curiosity, the façade of the Jockey Club was painted with designs and figures based on Native American art. This mural has recently been attributed to Hiler, who is known to have worked on the club's interior, by historian Jonathan Dentler. Given the burgeoning popularity of this aesthetic in Paris, and that a nearly identical work exists in the collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art, it is likely that Hiler painted the present work and others to sell as souvenirs to patrons and tourists.