Southwestern Still Life

Artist

Christina Akerman Hoerman (American, 1887 – 1986)

Date

Circa 1930s-40s

Medium

Oil on canvas

Credit Line

Gift of Betty Roelofs '53 Miller

Object Number

2019.16

Label

Christina Hoerman was the wife of Carl Hoerman, a notable American Regionalist painter active mainly in Chicago and West Michigan. Christina and Carl married in 1907. They first lived in Chicago where Carl worked as an architect and painter, but in 1920 they moved to Saugatuck, Michigan so that Carl could pursue a full-time painting career. Influenced by her husband, Christina began taking classes at the Oxbow art colony in Saugatuck and by 1925 she was exhibiting together with Carl in local galleries and shows. Christina specialized in landscapes, still-lifes and floral studies. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Christina and Carl traveled frequently to the American Southwest, spending many months in New Mexico and Southern California especially. They incorporated the scenery of that region into their painting repertoires and found ready buyers for their work in both the Southwest and Midwest. Christina Hoerman most likely produced this painting during one of her sojourns in the Southwest. The Native American bowl and blanket appear to be from the Pueblo cultures of New Mexico and the painting could have been done there or in the Hoerman’s Palm Springs studio using objects she acquired in New Mexico.