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Oil
on Masonite, 25 x 30 ¼ in.
Jessie Arms Botke made herself unique
among American artists with her decorative compositions of wild and
domesticated birds and foliage. The bird subject evolved out of
work for Herter Looms where she designed decorative bird and foliate
borders for furniture and murals. Her’s was not a sentimental
affection for birds but an attraction to their silhouettes. Over
her career she painted many species, and Crowned Pigeons is a
relief and a rarity from the seemingly hundreds of white peacocks,
cockatoos, and cranes that were her mainstay. Depicted here is the
Victoria Crowned Pigeon, as large as a hen turkey and one of three
varieties of crowned pigeon that is native to New Guinea. Residing
in California, Botke obtained her material from several aviaries
(both public and private) which dotted the area. This painting is
less decorative than some of her other pieces where the background
is flat gold leaf as this one shows the birds feeding in a somewhat
realistic three dimensional landscape of fern fronds and some
species of blooming echeveria succulent. A label on the reverse
identifies this painting as having been in the possession of and
possibly exhibited at the prestigious Grand Central Art Galleries in
New York, with which Botke had a long association beginning at least
by 1930.
Provenance, exhibitions,
publications:
Bonhams,
December 10, 2007, lot 199; Private Collection, Surprise, Arizona; Grand
Central Art Galleries, N.Y.
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