A western artist portrays people and places as they appear to be

Many western artists have portrayed Native Americans in traditional regalia like feathered headdresses.

Susan Barnett, the curator of the Whitney Western Art Museum, said early 20th century artist Gerald Cassidy’s works tended to portray people in a less staged way “at least with the appearance of observed reality.”

She described his painting The Council Meeting.

“These men that he is portraying, this council meeting, he’s calling it, they’re certainly not sitting at a council table. They’re not even sitting in a circle,” she said. “They’re leaning against a wall and seem to be just kind of looking out and thinking. One of them is smoking a cigarette, and they’re wearing a combination of Western dress and blankets thrown over their shoulders.”

Cassidy portrayed people and places of the American Southwest. He was a founding member of the Santa Fe artists’ colony.