Tempe & The Apache Lands 1915

Many of the canvases that Maynard Dixon painted between the years of 1914 and 1916 depict real places and people that the artist experienced firsthand. In 1915, he painted the architecture in Tempe, Arizona, which he referred to as “'Dobe Town.” The three paintings that used this nickname—Rain in 'Dobe Town, ‘Dobe Town, and Old Cow Town—were snapshots of the newly formed state of Arizona with its numerous small cow towns. 

In July of 1915, Maynard Dixon drew and painted images of two Apache women that reflected daily life on the tribe’s reservation. His ever-improving eye, combined with an ethnographer’s sensibilities, adroitly captured Apache life. The women wore blue calico skirts and Apache ‘cactus-kicker’ moccasins. Handmade burden baskets, laced with long fringes and tin-cone tinklers, dangled along the sides of their mounts. One can see that the back rider’s tinklers depicted in Apache Women are worn with age, much like the rider. This attention to detail sets Dixon apart from most of his peers.