Artwork
Indians Cooking Maize
Indians Cooking Maize is an oil painting. It dates from 1874 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. The canvas depicts a group of Native Americans engaged in the preparation of corn, a staple food, using an open fire.
About this work
Technique & Style
Indians Cooking Maize is an oil painting on canvas created in the second half of the 19th century by an American artist.
Indians Cooking Maize is an oil painting on canvas created in the second half of the 19th century by an American artist. The work measures 45.7 cm in height and 66 cm in width, reflecting a genre scene depicting daily life. It was originally from the Hudson River Valley, later owned by Avis and Rockwell Gardiner in Stamford, Connecticut, and sold in 1959 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch before being gifted to the National Gallery of Art in 1971. The painting is part of the National Gallery of Art's collection in Washington, D.C.
History & Provenance
Created in the second half of the 19th century by an American artist of that period, the oil-on-canvas painting Indians Cooking Maize was originally recorded as originating from the Hudson River Valley. The work entered the documented ownership chain with Avis and Rockwell Gardiner of Stamford, Connecticut, who sold it in 1959 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch. It subsequently became part of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., following a gift from the Garbisches in 1971.
The painting is held by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., accessioned as a gift from Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch in 1971.
It was previously in the collection of Avis and Rockwell Gardiner of Stamford, Connecticut, from whom the Garbisches acquired it in 1959. Earlier provenance places the work in the Hudson River Valley.
Overview
The canvas depicts a group of Native Americans engaged in the preparation of corn, a staple food, using an open fire. Women are shown stirring large pots while baskets of corn hang nearby, and a man attends the flames with a stick. The scene is rendered in oil, capturing a moment of everyday labor rather than a staged tableau.
Subject & Meaning
The work offers a rare visual record of 19th‑century Indigenous domestic activity, focusing on the communal aspects of food production. By portraying the participants in a calm, unembellished manner, the painting underscores the centrality of maize to cultural and nutritional life, while also highlighting gendered roles within the cooking process.
Artist & collection
- Midday Rest
The Cheyenne Brothers Starting on Their Fall Hunt
Chippewas Hunting Caribou
Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound
Assiniboin Encampment on the Upper Missouri
Vapor Bath - Minatarree
Three Piankeshaw Indians
Making Flint Arrowheads - Apachees
Indian Hunter and His Family
Nayas Indians
Funeral of Black Hawk - Saukie
A Crow Chief at His Toilette