Smarthistory – Cities and pueblos

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Hennings, Rabbit Hunt

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Question 1

What was the Taos Society of Artists?

A	A group of artists known for stereotypical images of Native Americans, often in scenes of battle
B	A group of artists who created traditional pottery and textiles for sale to tourists in New Mexico
C	A group of artists drawn to New Mexico for the aesthetic appeal of the landscape and culture
D	A prominent art school in New Mexico that taught academic painting techniques to local residents

Question 2

Which statement seems to best describe the artist's interest in creating this image?

A	He hoped to draw attention to the Pueblo Indians’ efforts to maintain control of their land
B	He hoped to depict a moment in time that captured the landscape and culture of the Southwest
C	He hoped to demonstrate the assimilation of Native Americans into Anglo-American culture
D	He hoped to document the hunting traditions of Native Americans for future generations

Question 3

How does Rabbit Hunt differ from Dash for the Timber by Frederic Remington?

A	Hennings presents day-to-day life rather than a stereotyped narrative about the American West
B	Hennings emphasizes the landscape rather than the figures in his painting
C	The work by Hennings focuses on dramatic narrative rather than everyday experience
D	Hennings tends to stereotype American Indians by focusing on traditional dress and customs

Question 4

Which detail seems to be more about representing Native American identity than its contribution to the visual qualities of painting?

A	The contrasting tones of the mountains in the distance that underscore the beauty of the desert landscape
B	The strong use of light and shadow on the foreground figure that obscures the rabbit
C	The traditional blanket that heightens the play of color, line, and shape
D	The highly detailed and specific Cheyenne moccasins worn by the seated figure

Question 5

As a primary source document, Rabbit Hunt supports all of the following claims except

A	The Pueblo culture was romanticized by Anglo-Americans traveling to the Southwest in the early 20th century
B	The Pueblo people’s daily lives reflected the influence of modern and Anglo-American culture in the early 20th century
C	The Pueblo people continued to maintain many traditional practices and customs in the early 20th century
D	Pueblo artists made items for sale to tourists, which increased their standard of living

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Key points

The Taos Pueblo Indians have maintained residence for centuries in what is now New Mexico. Their history was deeply affected by the Spanish colonial presence.
The people in the painting wear 20th-century clothing as well as items that refer to their cultural identity as Pueblo people. This imagery disrupts the stereotype of the American Indian as belonging only to the past.
In the early 20th century, the American Southwest became a popular destination for tourists. Railroads made travel easier and developed marketing materials promoting the region as a site for recreation.
The landscape and the mix of Taos Pueblo Indians and Hispanic cultures drew academically-trained artists from cities like New York and Chicago. They were looking for fresh and distinctly American subjects that differed from the industrialized places the artists had come from.

Many readers today carry an image of New Mexico seen through the lens of Georgia O’Keeffe’s now famous paintings…But O’Keeffe is only the best-known of an extensive colony of artists drawn to New Mexico by its particular blend of austere beauty, premodern village life, and Pueblo and Hispanic spirituality. Beginning in the 1890s, artists from the East flocked to Taos and Santa Fe in northern New Mexico. Culturally remote from the Euro-dominated eastern half of the nation, New Mexico was, as Charles Lummis put it, “the United States which is not the United States.” Spanning the spectrum from academic to modernist, these artists struggled to anchor the lessons of their European training in native themes. The peasant cultures of Brittany had furnished subject matter for American artists working in France. Returning to the United States, they responded eagerly to the possibilities presented by the Pueblo Indians and Hispanic villagers of the Rio Grande Valley, whose lives seemed to embody a timeless round of earthbound ritual and communal piety.

From the Renaissance to the “new age” movements of the late twentieth century, Europeans have romanticized Native cultures as embodying virtues their own societies were lacking.

From Angela L. Miller, Janet Catherine Berlo, Bryan J. Wolf, and Jennifer L. Roberts, American Encounters: Art, History, and Cultural Identity (Washington University Libraries, 2018), p. 494. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Go Deeper

Learn more about this painting at the Denver Art Museum

What are some terms and issues to consider when learning about Native American arts and culture?

What was the Taos Revolt of 1847? How did it demonstrate tensions between the Pueblo and the US government in the 19th century?

Learn about the Fred Harvey Company’s role in promoting tourism in the West

Read a biography of Fred Harvey

Look at the Fred Harvey Company records

More to think about

Compare Henning’s representation of Native Americans in Rabbit Hunt to photographs by Edward Curtis. How might images of Native Americans have contributed to perceptions about American Indians today?

Smarthistory images for teaching and learning:

[flickr_tags user_id=”82032880@N00″ tags=”Hennings,”]

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Cities and pueblos