Gerard Curtis Delano

“Navajo! symbol of dark skinned mystery, color and romance; Navajo! centaur-like nomads, following their sheep and the seasons across the desert. Nothing gives me more pleasure or greater thrill than seeing in real life the brightly clothed Navajos against their backgrounds of magnificent canyons, or the vast open stretches which are characteristic of their reserva-tion country. Seeing them, I, perforce, must paint.”That, in his own words, is the inspiration of Gerard Curtis Delano, chronicler, in oils and water-colors, of Navajo life.

Delano is a realist. He believes that no possible pictorial invention of man can equal nature itself; that the basis of good art is good design. His paintings are consistently lighted and well composed. When bright sunlight is the theme, it is efficiently handled, with clarity, extreme brilliance and the vivid full-color of Arizona and the Southwest.

Each of the Delano paintings is an individual thing. There is no pattern and there is no formula for his work.

“I do not use any one method in painting my pictures,” he says. “Each is based on first hand observation and study 'on location,' and the finished product is generally the direct result of a preliminary inspirational pencil sketch. This has been selected from among many made for the purpose, and is chosen on the basis of its best expressing the main idea and on its compositional design.

“This idea-design sketch is then 'roughed-in' to scale on the canvas or water-color paper, as the case may, and the painting is then quickly 'massed in' in full color. The entire 'effect' is usually created in the space of a few hours. The more accurate finishing then begins, the 'trueing up' of the drawing, and frequently many changes are made in both line and color before I consider the result is satisfactory.

“Broadly speaking, each painting is intended to express some particularly dominant idea, and until or unless it does so, it just does not 'ring the bell.' This requires, on some occasions, only two or three hours; on others, five or six weeks. I paint my large finished pictures immediately on my return from one of my Arizona trips and while my impressions are still fresh and vivid.

“The painting, 'Navajo,' was designed to express and typify these fascinating and color-ful people. Through Arizona's magnificent Canyons de Chelly and del Muerto there ride daily just such groups of Navajos, on their way to and from the trading post at Chinle, or on other errands. Along the sandy floor of these canyons they pass in family groups in wagons, or mounted on their wiry ponies, their quirt hands constantly busy in untiring motion. This painting was especially inspired by a chance meeting with a beautiful Navajo girl, riding a snow white horse in Canyon de Chelly. Like a queen she consented to pose for me, and after my return to my studio 'Navajo' was designed and painted.

“There is a vastness, an immensity and the peaceful hush of an enormous cathedral about Arizona's great canyons. Whoever has been within these towering walls, who has seen the flocks of sheep and goats grazed there by the Navajo; who has heard the distant tinkle of the lead goat's bell and listened to the wild and eerie songs of the bright skirted shepherdesses, and who has seen in the distance an approaching rider a tiny speck against the massive canyon walls must yearn to perpetuate his impressions of those precious moments. That is why I painted “The Canyon.’ “The scene in 'Desert Thunderhead' is located northeast of Kayenta in the Monument Valley region. The painting was inspired by just such a 'cream-puff,' 'roly-poly' cloud formation billowing up into the high sky while I was in that country. This is a phase of desert skies which has always appealed to me. It seems so utterly typical of the desert country that I felt its story must be told.” “Before the Navajo acquired wagons it was customary to pack their firewood home on horses, mules or burros. “Navajo Boy” shows a typical son of the Navajo with his load of juniper branches on his way home to the hogan. The material for this painting was obtained on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona.

“Moonlight Stampede” depicts an old time Apache stampede of horses. Early trappers and emigrants in Arizona frequently experienced such dismaying stampedes of their live-stock by the Indians. This painting was designed to express the half-crazed surge and rush of a bunch of semi-wild horses. It was inspired by historical research and was painted after a great deal of careful study of Western moonlight effects.

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"Navajo Encampment" is the result of the artist's viewing just such a scene while on one of his trips in Monument Valley, while "Sheep on the Desert" came into being also because of a visit to Monument Valley. The latter is one of the scenes so typical of the life and scenery on the Navajo Reservation. The majesty and glory of the Vermilion Cliffs of Arizona, near Route 89, provide the background in the painting of that title, while the herd of Navajo sheep and goats with their Indian shepherdess form the foreground motif.

Gerard Curtis Delano hails from Massachusetts. He is a distant cousin of President Roosevelt, a co-descendant of the pioneer Philippe de Lannoy who landed in New England from France in 1621. He has been a resident of the West over a period of twenty-three years. While still in his 'teens, the artist sold his first drawing, a small pen and ink, to the magazine "Life." Regarding this as a good omen he promptly left home to commence the study of art. He enrolled in the evening classes at the Swain Free School of Design in the nearby city of New Bedford, while earning his living, daytime, in a local gun store.

A few months later, he accepted an offer of work in New York as a designer of textiles. Evenings, he studied at the Art Students' League under the famous draughtsman, the late George Bridgeman, and the noted painters, Frank Vincent Dumond and Edward Dufner. From this point on, the artist earned his living and gained experience in practically every form of commercial art. He was a frequent contributor to "Life," "Judge" and "Puck;" the famous English publication. "Punch" also published his humorous drawings. He drew women's fashions, made animated movie cartoons, then invaded the advertising field, took a fling at portrait sketches, went over to magazine covers and then joined the ranks of the illustrators. During this period, the artist maintained a studio on East 57th Street, New York's "Art Center."

Delano served in the Navy during World War I, enlisting as a "gob" and mustering out from Officers' Training Camp. Shortly after his discharge he gratified a life-long "yen" to come West. His first move was to hire out as a hand on a cattle ranch, where he learned to ride, did some painting and soaked up the beauty of the country. The following year, he filed on a homestead claim and established residence in a dirt-roofed log cabin of his own building. He returned to New York after "proving-up." Periodic trips to the West followed, until the Great Depression marked another turning-point in the artist's career. He came West for keeps. For a time it was heavy going; the market was far away and sales were few. Life on the homestead was crude and the necessary chores cutting and hauling wood on a big homemade sled to feed the "air-tight," the everyday rechopping of three feet of ice in the water hole on the nearby creek and the digging of paths in the deep, newly fallen snow-became boring and discouraging. But he rode it out!

Then came a two-year contract with a Western story magazine for a series of drawings with accompanying text, appearing weekly, under the title of "The Story of the West." This was, in effect, an authentic history of the entire development of the West, from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present day. The series, of course, required extensive research, so that autumn found the artist located in the city of Colorado Springs. The next fall, after summering at the homestead, he located in Denver, where he has since maintained his winter studio.

This was, indeed, the turn of the tide that, "taken at the flood," led on to the recognition of Gerard Curtis Delano as a painter in the field of Western art. Among the first to recognize the exceptional quality of Delano's work were the well known New York art dealers, the Ferragil and the Macbeth galleries and Cyrus Boutwell of Denver. Macbeth gave his paintings a showing on first sight, while a large exhibit of his work is now on permanent (though ever changing) display at the Boutwell Galleries.

In 1941, the artist received an invitation to show at the Annual Art Festival of the Western State College of Colorado at Gunnison and was awarded first prize in oils for his canvas "Canyon del Muerto." The next year, showing there again, he won first prize in water-colors; and again in 1943, taking top honors in oils with his "Navajo Boy."

He earned his greatest distinction in those pictures in which he captured the color of the Navajo and the vibrance and variety of the Arizona sky. "The slogan of the Navajo is 'Walk with beauty," says Delano. "And that's good enough for me."