|
Born in
Covington, Kentucky, he had a successful dual career as both a painter
and print maker of Southwest Pueblo Indians.
He grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and his early art talent allowed him
to be accepted for study with Frank Duveneck at the Cincinnati Art Academy.
By age 20, he was director of a lithography firm in New York City. Because
of tuberculosis and a life expectancy of six months, he went to a sanitarium
in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1899, and this venture was his first experience
of the West. There he made illustrations in the popular style of Howard
Pyle and did drawings of Indians for reproduction on postcards, which
earned him his first money in New Mexico.
He regained his health but remained in the West, working in Denver as
a successful commercial artist doing many theatrical and circus posters,
stage sets, magazine illustrations, and advertisements.
Then he returned briefly to New York and enrolled at the National Academy
of Design and the Art Students League. In the early 1900s, he settled
in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and working from a studio at the Palace of
the Governors, earned by 1915 a national reputation for realistic Indian
and western scenes. He was only the third anglo artist to establish
residency in Santa Fe. At this time, he changed his signature from Ira
Diamond Cassidy to Gerald Cassidy, and placed the sun symbol of the
Tewa Indians between his first and last name.
His reason for moving to Santa Fe was the commissioned work by Edgar
L Hewitt, Director of the School of American Archaeology, to document
the culture of Pueblo Indians. Hewitt regarded the life of the Indians
as the counterpoint to the materialism of white civilization. Cassidy
became so committed to this work that he decorated his home with altar
paintings from the ruined Nambe mission church.
He also painted many landscapes and large historic murals for commercial
buildings including the Indian Arts Building. His wife, Ina Sizer Davis,
whom he married in 1912, became a noted author of numerous articles
on New Mexico art colonies. From 1913 to 1921, Cassidy was also active
as a painter in California. He died from lead poisoning while working
on a mural
|
 Acoma Water Carrier |
|
Villa Franc De Mer |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
