Chest

1780–1830

Attributed to the Valdés family (active 18th–19th centuries)
New Mexico

This hand-carved chest belongs to a visually distinct group of works attributed to the Valdés family of carvers from what is now New Mexico. Chests such as this were the most common piece of furniture found in the region—multipurpose objects that also stood as decorative elements in homes and churches. In addition to the sculptural qualities of the geometric patterning and applied carved balls on this example, traces of red and black pigment reveal that it was once vibrantly painted.

Status: On View, Gallery 161
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Valdés family
Title: Chest
Place: New Mexico (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: c. 1780–1830
Medium: Ponderosa pine, metal, and paint
Inscriptions: Incised, mark, right side of chest, center, above brace [asterisk].
Dimensions: 82.6 × 95.6 × 52.4 cm (32 1/2 × 37 5/8 × 20 5/8 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by an anonymous donor in honor of Nelson E. Smyth; purchased with funds provided by Warren L. Batts, Jamee J. and Marshall Field, Mrs. Frank L. Sulzberger, and Wesley M. Dixon Jr.
Reference Number: 1986.419
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/109694/manifest.json

Paul A. F. Walter, “A New Mexico Lourdes,” El Palacio 3, no. 2 (Jan. 1916): 3–27 (ill.).
Lonn Taylor, “New Mexican Chests: A Comparative Look,” El Palacio 89, 2 (Summer 1983): 34, fig. 2 (ill).
Patrick Pacheco, “New Mexico Style,” Art and Antiques (April 1986): 68–75 (ill.).
Streck’s Auction Service, The Forest Fenn Collection, sale cat., August 15, 1986, lot 199 (ill. front cover on display at Forrest Fenn Galleries).
Jane van N. Turano, “A Special Week of American Indian Art Shows and Auctions,” Maine Antique Digest (October 1986): 1B–3B (ill.).
Lonn Taylor and Dessa Bokides, New Mexican Furniture, 1600–1940, Santa Fe, 1987 (Santa Fe, NM: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1987), 24, 29, 33, pl. 6 (ill).
Tom Armstrong, The New Field–McCormick Galleries in the Art Institute of Chicago, The Magazine Antiques CXXXIV, no. 4 (Oct. 1988): 822–835 (ill.).
Lita Solis–Cohen, “Chicago Shows Off –––Tastefully,” Maine Antiques Digest (Dec. 1988): 12B–15B (ill.).
Milo M. Naeve, Identifying American Furniture: A Pictorial Guide to Styles and Terms, Colonial to Contemporary, 2nd ed. (Nashville, Tennessee: American Association for State and Local History, 1989), no. 160 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter and Monica Obniski, For Kith and Kin: The Folk Art Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2012), 28-29, cat. no. 1.
Penelope Hunter–Stiebel, “Furnishing the Santa Fe Style, An Investigation in Two Parts, Part I: The Unexpected Designer Jesse L. Nusbaum, 1887–1975,” El Palacio> 118, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 32–41 (ill.).
Karla Klein Albertson, “Photography + Folk Art,” Antiques and the Arts Weekly, Nov. 19, 2019, https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/photography-folk-art, (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Photography + Folk Art: Looking for America in the 1930s, Sept. 21, 2019–Jan. 19, 2020, no cat.

Reportedly, Church of San Francisco de Asís (Assisi), Rancho de Taos, NM [Walter 1916, 9]. E. I. Couse (1866-1936; also Eanger Irving Couse), Taos, NM, by around 1910 [this and the following according to letter from Ernest E. Leavitt, Dec. 30, 1996; copy in curatorial object file]; by descent to his son and daughter-in-law, Kibby Whitman Couse (1894-1978) and Lucille Course (1896-1939; born Lucille Wrenn), New York then Tucson; sold to Wolfgang Pogzeba (1936–1982), about early 1970s [notarized statement from Wolfgang Pogzeba, Mar. 28, 1979; in curatorial object file]; sold to Forrest Fenn Galleries, Santa Fe, NM, by 1983 [Taylor 1983, 43]; consigned to Streck’s Auction Service, Santa Fe, NM, 1986; sold, The Forrest Fenn Collection, Streck’s Auction Service, Santa Fe, NM, Aug. 15, 1986, lot 199 [invoice Aug. 15, 1986; copy in curatorial object file], to the Art Institute of Chicago.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.