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“Flowers”, 1968
An exceptionally fine and completely unique
original oil on linen canvas painting and true love story
by Fritz Scholder (1937-2005),1968
ex: Romona and Fritz Scholder personal collection,
Santa Fe and Galisteo, NM
It’s not very often, if ever, that you will find a painting painted by an important artist for the most important person in their life, a painting meant only to hang in the artist’s and his wife’s own personal private place solely for their own personal private enjoyment and pleasure, it’s an extremely intimate and personal level of involvement and importance that sets this heartfelt painting apart from the many paintings that Fritz Scholder painted for more common, less exalted, more commercial and more public reasons. The then Newly wed Fritz Scholder’s sweet personal dedication of the painting to his wife, Romona, which he artfully inscribed in black ink on the back of the wooden stretcher bar reads as follows:
“Flowers, 1968-oil on linen 9”x 9"
To My Dear Wife- Dec. ’68, Fritz"
This lovely painting was clearly painted with love and for love only, the artist literally poured his heart into it and
it is suffused with that intensity of feeling as can be clearly seen in the painting itself; its beauty, its simple, direct, compelling and overwhelming purity and sweetness, the captured permanence of that most fleeting of creatures, the delicate flower, a token and symbol of love, which while rendered permanent here, in actual life is fleeting like love itself. This is Fritz Scholder, in effect, symbolically giving his wife a permanent bouquet of beautiful flowers as an expression and promise of enduring and everlasting love.
“This was the Fritz Scholder that the world knew: driven by a sense of destiny,
“serious about making it, becoming a famous artist,” says Romona; “a great painter but also a great salesman,” adds his friend Skip Holbrook, who taught with him at IAIA."
Quotation source and © "Fritz Scholder in Galisteo" by Keiko Ohnuma, Trend Magazine, Santa Fe, NM, Fall 2010/Winter 2011 issue
Three Personal Dedications on the Painting’s Verso.
Fritz Scholder sitting beneath the buffalo head which hung in the living room
of the home he shared with Romona Scholder in Galisteo, New Mexico, c. 1978.
Photo source and © Wikipedia
And the love story doesn’t end there although it does later include some things other than love. Fritz and Romona Scholder divorced in 1994 after 27 years of marriage and eventually in 2002 Fritz re-married, but through all this time Romona still sentimentally kept this painting, for 37 years in all, until almost a year after Fritz’s death in February, 2005 at which point she passed it on to Fritz’s close Santa Fe friend and former fellow instructor at Santa Fe’s Institute for American Indian Art (IAIA), Millard (Skip) Holbrook, in December, 2005, who in a parallel gesture in spirit with his old friend and colleague dedicated the painting to his wife, Rose, as follows on the back of the wood stretcher bar:
“To my Dear Wife, Rose
-Dec. 2005, Skip"
At a later unknown time, Skip and Rose Holbrook passed the painting on to an art colleague here in Santa Fe from
whom we were able to acquire it early in 2023. In the spirit of its creator and previous owners, we have also dedicated
the painting from husband to wife so the artistic love story has continued into its third generation and it is now ready
for its fourth chapter.
The painting is most beautifully and sensitively rendered in oil paint on a fine linen canvas and it measures 9" in height
and 9" in width (sight). It is framed in a plain gold metal leaf gilded wood frame hand made by the artist himself. The framed dimensions are 10 3/8" in height by 10 3/8" in width. The panting is properly signed “Scholder” in the artist’s unique and customary signature at the upper right. The painting is in completely excellent original condition and despite its nearly fifty years of age it looks remarkably fresh, almost as if it could have been painted yesterday. It has clearly been highly treasured and very well taken care of its entire life.
Valentine’s Day is coming around the corner very soon. Will you be the next fortunate person to have the rare opportunity to write the fourth and next installment of this marvelous, ongoing 47-year old artistic love story
created by one of America’s most prominent and historically significant Modern artists?
Price available upon request
PROVENANCE:
The Artist as a gift to his wife, Romona Scholder, Santa Fe and Galisteo, NM, Dec. 1968
Romona Scholder to Fritz Scholder’s close friend and IAIA colleague,
Millard “Skip” Holbrook as a gift to his wife, Rose Holbrook, Santa Fe, NM, Dec. 2005
Skip and Rose Holbrook, Santa Fe, NM to Private Collection, Santa Fe, NM, n.d.
Fine Arts of the Southwest, Santa Fe, NM, 2023-present
Fritz and Romona Scholder in Galisteo, New Mexico, c. 1970's
Photo source and © Peter Ogilvie, "Fritz Scholder in Galisteo", Trend Magazine, Santa Fe, NM, Fall 2010/Winter 2011 issue
