Sketch for Spanish Dance Scene (Mural for Santa Fe Country Club), circa 1920
Gerald Cassidy (American, 1869 - 1934)
oil on canvas panel, 14 1/2 x 25 1/2 in. (36.8 x 64.8 cm) (image)
Gift of Mrs. Gerald Cassidy, 1963
1094.23P
Gerald Cassidy received his training at the Institute of Mechanical Arts, and the Art Students League in New York, both schools introducing him to other artists of the era and the ideas they were exploring. When he moved to a sanitarium in Albuquerque with a life-threatening case of pneumonia, he first saw the people and places of the Southwest. This became the central subject matter for his entire life's work which developed into a solidly realist style. Cassidy moved to Santa Fe in 1912, becoming a founding member of the Santa Fe Artists' Colony.