Vintage Native Americans, Hopi Katchina by Couse

Hopi Katchina (1929) by Eanger Couse is a vintage American West fine art portrait painting. A Hopi Native American Indian is holding a traditional katchina (kachina or kacina) doll. A kachina can represent anything that exists in the natural world or cosmos, from a revered ancestor to an element, a location, a quality, a natural phenomenon, or a concept. There are more than 400 different kachinas in Hopi and Pueblo culture. The local pantheon of kachinas varies in each pueblo community; there may be kachinas for the sun, stars, thunderstorms, wind, corn, insects, and many other concepts. Kachinas are understood as having human-like relationships; they may have uncles, sisters, and grandmothers, and may marry and have children. Although not worshipped, each is viewed as a powerful being who, if given veneration and respect, can use their particular power for human good, bringing rainfall, healing, fertility, or protection. About the artist: Eanger Irving Couse (1866-1936) was an American artist in the old Wild West, noted for paintings of Native Americans, New Mexico, and the American Southwest. He was a member of the Taos Society of Artists.