Homage to Mabel Dodge (1919)
Oil on canvas, 24" x 35"
Signed and dated "W.E. Mruk 19" lower center.
Provenance: Walter Mruk to artist John Edward Thompson (1882-1945).
*Note: Thompson was based in Buffalo, NY, where he met Mruk. He was instrumental in bringing Mruk to Denver, CO, and then Taos, NM in 1919.
By descent to Mrs. John Thompson upon his death in 1945
Estate of Mrs. John Thompson
Rosenstock Arts, Denver, CO
Private collection, Denver, CO
Linda M. Lebsack Books, Denver, CO
Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Exhibitions: 1994 Los Cincos Pintores & The Santa Fe Art Colony Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe NM
Date Unknown Addison Rowe Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Signed "W.E. Mruk 19" lower center.
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This work, created by Mruk in his first year in Taos, depicts art patroness Mabel Dodge Luhan, who is rumored to have turned down Mruk's request for patronage as he tried to establish himself as an artist. Lower left in the painting is Tony Luhan, Dodge's purported lover while she was still married to Maurice Sterne.
The "Homage" is satirical in nature, and touches upon themes of wealth, creative integrity, and power wielded by those who hold the purse strings.
