67

Maynard Dixon

(1875-1946)

"Catalinas at Sundown" (Arizona), 1943

Oil on canvas laid to artist's board
Signed, dated, and inscribed along the lower edge, at left: Maynard Dixon / Ariz Dec 1943; titled and inscribed with the artist's Tuscon, AZ address and artist number "674" in a circle, all in pencil on the verso, and again on the verso of the frame's backing board
12" H x 16" W

  • Provenance:
    Alfred Eisner Jr. Collection, Chicago, IL, 1943, acquired directly from the artist, by oral tradition at the University of Utah student center
    Private Collection, acquired from the above by descent
  • Literature:
    Wesley M. Burnside, "Maynard Dixon: Artist of the West," (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1974), p. 186.
  • Notes:
    Western, California and Modernist painter, muralist and illustrator Maynard Dixon was born in the vast flatlands of the San Joaquin Valley in 1875. Afflicted with asthma from an early age, Dixon led a quiet childhood sketching and listening to the tall tales of Native Americans and cowboys told to him by his paternal grandfather and six uncles. These stories pushed Dixon to develop a lifelong fascination with the lives of the settlers of the American West and the Indigenous peoples who originally inhabited the land.

    Dixon's artistic skill was recognized early in his life. Living in rural California provided little access to formal art instruction, so Dixon turned to studying the engravings in periodicals such as Scribner's and Harper's Weekly in order to improve his technique. Through these publications, Dixon became familiar with the work of contemporary artists illustrating the American West, chief amongst them Frederic Remington. Remington's heroic and technical depictions left an indelible impression on young Dixon, and at age 16, Dixon sent two sketch books to Remington for criticism and advice. On September 3, 1891, Remington responded with support and enthusiasm to 'draw, draw, draw'.

    Encouraged by this response, Dixon enrolled at the School of Design in San Francisco later in 1891, but he found the formal education to be stifling and left before the end of the year. Despite being largely self-taught, Dixon found success as an illustrator and exhibited widely. He moved around frequently, often working as a cowpuncher throughout the Western states while building a career as a magazine illustrator using his extensive travel and job experiences as subject inspiration. At the turn of the 19th to 20th Centuries, Dixon had fully embraced a Bohemian lifestyle, frequenting Coppa's Restaurant and spending a lot of time with friends including artist Xavier Martinez (1869-1943).

    In 1904 he moved into a studio on Pine Street in San Francisco where he met artist Lillian West Tobey who made him consider settling down for the first time. They married in 1905 and a year later the earthquake and fire destroyed his studio and most of his early works. The Dixons then lived across the Golden Gate in Sausalito until 1907 when he accepted a commission from the Southern Pacific Railroad to paint a mural for their depot in Tucson, AZ. A stint living in New York and working as a magazine illustrator for publications including "Century," "Scribner's" and "McClure's" Magazines followed, and he also significantly spent time in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho and Cutbank, Montana in 1909. A daughter Constance was born in 1910.

    Dixon returned to California in 1912 at which point he abandoned commercial art to concentrate on easel paintings and murals fully. During the 1915 Pan Pacific International Exposition, Dixon suffered a nervous breakdown. His marriage to Tobey did not recover from this setback and the couple divorced in 1917.

    Three years later, in 1920, Maynard Dixon married social commentary photographer Dorothea Lange. Their union would last until 1935 and produced two sons, Daniel and John Dixon. Shortly after they married, Dixon shifted his energy to focus on painting murals. The large surface area of mural painting taught him to distill his painting style into simple but powerful compositions with hard horizon lines and vivid colors of the unfettered beauty of the American desert landscape.

    Two years after his marriage to Lange ended, Dixon married artist Edith Hamlin in 1937. The artist-couple frequently painted side by side, sometimes working on similar compositions. As Dixon's health declined, they made the decision to move from San Francisco to the drier climates of Arizona and Utah.

    They first moved into a home and studio in Mount Carmel, Utah in summer 1940 while a Mexican colonial style home and studio was being constructed on Prince Road in Tucson. (Donald J. Hagerty, Desert Dreams: The Art and Life of Maynard Dixon, Layton, Utah, Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 2010, p. 235). The Tucson residence was finished in April 1941, and, until Dixon was no longer able to tolerate Utah's higher altitudes or the journey, they split their time between the two locations each year, generally spending winter and spring in the Sonoran Desert where they enjoyed views of the Santa Catalina Mountains, and summer and fall in the cooler climate of Utah. (Mark Sublette, Maynard Dixon's American West: Along the Distant Mesa, Tucson, 2018, p. 350).

    Dixon's Tucson studio "...window looked beyond the Rillito to the Catalinas which he painted repeatedly in the molten light of the dying day. Painters of the desert are innumerable. There has been only one who painted it as Dixon did, 'Where many have looked,' wrote Arthur Millier, 'he is one of the few who have really seen. His vision of the West is so true that we have come to see the region through the forms and colors of his paintings. Thus great artists teach us to see nature.'" (Laurence Clark Powell, "Maynard Dixon's Painted Desert," Westways, "Personalities of the West," May 1974, p. 86).

    Despite significant health issues, Dixon "worked every day in his studio, pouring every shred of remaining energy into his art" (Hagerty, p. 251). "His paintings and drawings of Arizona remain a testament to beauty, to a land and the people who are one with it, to loneliness and lonely places, to distance itself" (Thomas Brent Smith, "A Place of Refuge: Maynard Dixon's Arizona," (Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ) November 2008, p. 39).

    In "Road to the Mountains (Santa Catalina Range)" and "Catalinas at Sundown" one can see Dixon's absolute confidence as a painter and for his subject, and sense the intensity in which he worked during this final period. In both paintings, the artist's hallmark "cubist realism" is evident with each composition broken into distinct 1/3 spatial elements from the foregrounds to the distant mountains that yield to desert skies. The mountains' strong diagonal compositions are a play of sunlight and shadow serving to enhance and enliven the craggy cliff faces as late day pink sunlit hues sourced from the left contrast with deep shadows in purples and blues. While "Catalinas at Sundown" is a pure representation of the local Arizona landscape, Dixon includes a single rider on brown horseback walking directly toward the viewer in "Road to the Mountains," positioning the figural vignette just below the center point of the composition.

    We are grateful to Donald J. Hagerty, noted Maynard Dixon scholar, for his assistance in cataloging this lot.
  • Condition: Visual: Overall good appearance. Slight surface grime. The artist's board extends very slightly beyond the width of the canvas (as do the paint strokes), along the vertical edges. Slight wear and frame abrasion along the vertical and lower edges. The board has warped and is now very slightly concave. Original frame.

    Blacklight: No evidence of restoration.

    Frame: 16.25" H x 20.25" W x 1.5" D


    Condition reports are offered as a courtesy and are typically published in Moran's catalogue or can be made available upon request. The absence of a condition report does not imply that an item is free from defects or restoration, nor does a reference to particular defects imply the absence of others. Buyers are responsible for determining to their own satisfaction the true nature and condition of any lot prior to bidding. Though buyers are not legally required to inspect lots prior to purchase, failure to do so may constitute a waiver of complaint that an item was not delivered in a condition equal to the existent condition at the auction.

Accepted Forms of Payment:

ACH, American Express, Discover, MasterCard, Money Order / Cashiers Check, Personal Check, Visa, Wire Transfer

Shipping

Shipping. As a courtesy to buyers, Moran provides a list of preferred shippers who are in the business of transporting antiques and works of art. Buyers are responsible for arranging their own shipping estimates and deliveries. Moran, in its sole discretion and as a courtesy to buyers, may arrange to have purchased lots packed, insured, and forwarded by a third-party shipper at the request, expense, and risk of the buyer. In circumstances where Moran arranges for such third-party services, Moran may apply an administration charge of 15% of that service fee. Moran assumes no responsibility for acts or omissions in such packing or shipping by other packers or carriers, even if recommended by Moran. Moran also assumes no responsibility for any damage to picture frames or to the glass therein.

June 3, 2025 10:00 AM PDT
Monrovia, CA, US

John Moran Auctioneers

You agree to pay a buyer’s premium, as outlined below, and any applicable taxes and shipping.
Buyer's Premium
$0 - $1,000,000:
27.00%
$1,000,001 - $5,000,000:
21.00%
$5,000,001+:
15.00%

View full terms and conditions

Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $499 $25
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 $499,999 $25,000
$500,000 $999,999 $50,000
$1,000,000 + $100,000