Winold Reiss (1886–1953)

WINOLD REISS (1886–1953)
Runs Over His Enemy, 1943
Pastel and tempera on paper, 32 x 20 in.
Signed (at lower left): WINOLD / REISS

RECORDED: Jeffrey C. Stewart, Winold Reiss: An Illustrated Checklist of His Portraits (Washington, D.C.: National Portrait Gallery, 1990), p. 85 illus.

EX COLL.: the artist; to his estate, 1953 until the present

In the time that Winold Reiss spent living with and painting the Blackfeet of Montana, the artist explored every demographic of his chosen people: infants to elders, male and female, tribal leaders as well as ordinary folk. As with his Harlem Renaissance portraits, some of Reiss Blackfeet subjects were identifiable figures, others not. Reiss liked painting children. His portrait of Runs Over His Enemy is endearing. We are looking at a boy, bearing a seemingly incongruous adult Blackfeet name, dressed in standard western garb, similar to that worn by older men in the tribe who had jobs that required mainstream costume. The outfit, jeans and a plaid work shirt with snap closures and a breast pocket, is unremarkable except for an adult-size hat, its crown too tall, its brim too wide for his child’s face. It makes him appear to be playing “dress up,” in anticipation of the day when he grows into the promise of his name. He is a figure out of Reiss’s youthful fantasies, but with a twist: an Indian boy dressed like a cowboy