A band of Sioux warriors has come upon a wagon loaded down with contraband in Howard Terpning’s award-winning “Whiskey Smugglers.” The strangers talk and smile with their mouths but their eyes and their hearts are hard. The white man’s whiskey was a curse upon the People. It induced an initial euphoric state like that experienced during a sacred vision quest. But there were no spiritual revelations . . . nothing at all but drunkenness and despair. The white man’s empty promises and treaties could rob the People of their land. His whiskey could steal their souls.
“Whiskey Smugglers” won the Gold for Gouache at the 1998 Cowboy Artists of America show. It was one of five awards Howard took home that evening including two other Gold awards, the CA Award and to top it off, Best of Show. “Guarding the Lodge,” which was released last August and is Sold Out at Publisher, won one of those Gold awards.
Like “Guarding the Lodge,” “Whiskey Smugglers” is part of a special series paying tribute to the works Terpning created on paper. Reproduced on the finest archival watercolor paper, this Greenwich Workshop Fine Art Edition represents a distinct and impressionable aspect of the art of Howard Terpning as it was meant to be seen. At 36″ x 24″, it is an impressive work of art and as an edition of only 85, it is one of his most limited.
Collectors that own “Offerings to the Little People” and “Guarding the Lodge” should consider that by adding “Whiskey Smugglers” to their collection would give them the trifecta of images that swept every award category (except sculpture) at the 1998 Cowboy Artist of America show.
