The Rattlesnake
by Peter Ogden
Title
The Rattlesnake
Artist
Peter Ogden
Medium
Painting - Oil On Canvas
Description
This is a restored copy of The Rattlesnake, a circa 1920 oil on canvas by American painter Kathryn W. Leighton, 1876-1952.
Kathryn Woodman Leighton (March 17, 1875 − July 1, 1952) was an American artist, based in Los Angeles, California, best known for her Western landscapes and for portraits of Native Americans.
Kathryn Woodman was born in Plainfield, New Hampshire, in 1875 (some sources give 1876), the daughter of Alfred Woodman and Marie Thomas Gallup Woodman. Her father was a Civil War veteran. Woodman graduated from Kimball Union Academy in Plainfield. She studied art at the Boston Normal Art School in Boston, Massachusetts.
Kathryn Woodman Leighton moved to Los Angeles with her husband in 1910. She had a studio at the couple's home on West 46th Street, in South Los Angeles. She traveled to the Canadian Rockies in 1923, and to Glacier National Park in 1925, to paint landscapes. In 1926, she returned to Glacier National Park, this time as the guest of the Great Northern Railway, commissioned to paint scenes of life among the Blackfeet, including portraits of the tribal leaders. The railroad used Leighton's paintings to promote Western tourism, and Leighton's work turned from landscapes to Native American portraits. She often used Native American actors as models in her Los Angeles studio. She painted a life-sized portrait of Los Angeles suffragist and clubwoman Florence Collins Porter in 1930.
Her paintings were not innovative in form, but they were hailed as "distinctive" and "historical" for their content; "Kathryn Leighton has painted the Indian aristocracy as Van Dyke painted the British aristocracy," declared a Los Angeles Times critic. However, another Los Angeles Times critic commented that the portraits "command my respect and admiration--and yet I do not personally like them."
Leighton served a term as president of the California Art Club, and was a member of the Los Angeles Art Association and the Laguna Art Association. In 1930, works by Leighton were exhibited at Knoedler Galleries in Paris. Her work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics. She had a solo exhibition of her works at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1940. She also donated some of her antique lace collection to LACMA.
Her brother Frederick T. Woodman was mayor of Los Angeles from 1916 to 1919, and displayed many of Kathryn's paintings in the mayor's office.
Kathryn Woodman married attorney Edward Everett Leighton in 1900; they adopted a son, Everett Woodman Leighton, who followed his father into a law career. She was widowed when Edward died in 1941, and she died in 1952.
Leighton's paintings continue to be collected and exhibited, often in shows about women artists in the American West. In 2007 she was included in a show at the University of Wyoming Art Museum. The Smithsonian American Art Museum has one painting by Leighton in its collection, a portrait of Iron Eyes Cody.
Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genera Crotalus and Sistrurus of the subfamily Crotalinae. All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting small animals such as birds and rodents.
Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genera Crotalus and Sistrurus of the subfamily Crotalinae (the pit vipers). All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting small animals such as birds and rodents.
Rattlesnakes receive their name from the rattle located at the end of their tails, which makes a loud rattling noise when vibrated that deters predators or serves as a warning to passers-by. Rattlesnakes are the leading contributor to snakebite injuries in North America, but rarely bite unless provoked or threatened; if treated promptly, the bites are seldom fatal.
The 36 known species of rattlesnakes have between 65 and 70 subspecies, all native to the Americas, ranging from British Columbia through Ontario in southern Canada, to central Argentina. The largest rattlesnake, the eastern diamondback, can measure up to 8 ft (2.4 m) in length.
Rattlesnakes are preyed upon by hawks, weasels, king snakes, and a variety of other species. Rattlesnakes are heavily preyed upon as neonates, while they are still weak and immature. Large numbers of rattlesnakes are killed by humans. Rattlesnake populations in many areas are severely threatened by habitat destruction, poaching, and extermination campaigns.
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June 9th, 2023
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