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Santo Head Study No. 1
Santo Head Study No. 1
Santo Head Study No. 1

Santo Head Study No. 1

Artist (American, 1904 - 1954)
Date1952-1953
Mediumwatercolor
DimensionsImage: 17 × 13 13/16 in. (43.2 × 35.1 cm)
Support: 17 × 13 13/16 in. (43.2 × 35.1 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift of the Cady Wells Estate, 1982
Object number1982.16.14
eMuseum Notes

In Santo Head Study No. 1, Cady Wells depicted the head of an unknown saint from his extensive collection of Spanish Colonial art. Wells looked to the religious paintings of Georges Rouault for inspiration and used a limited mottled palette suggestive of stained glass.

Cady Wells began collecting Spanish Colonial religious art after meeting E. Boyd, a fellow artist who would become one of the foremost experts on the Santero tradition. Over roughly fifteen years, Wells would amass a collection of approximately 250 pieces and ultimately donated his collection to the Museum of New Mexico in 1951 with the condition that E. Boyd be hired as a curator for a newly formed Department of Spanish Colonial Art.

On View
Not on view
Cady Wells, Head of Santo, 1939, oil and watercolor on paper, 22 ¾ x 15 ¼ in. Collection of the…
Cady Wells
1939-1940
Cady Wells, Santo No. 1, circa 1948, gouache impasto on paperboard, 29 ½ x 20 ½ in. Collection …
Cady Wells
1952
Portrait of E #1
Cady Wells
n.d.
Cady Wells, Blue Whirlpool Study, n.d., watercolor on paper, 16 9/16 × 22 1/2 in. Collection of…
Cady Wells
1933
Verso
Cady Wells
1933
Flowering Tree
Cady Wells
1933
New Mexico Landscape
Cady Wells
1933
Pueblo (3 figures)
Cady Wells
circa 1935
Fetish (The Pup)
Cady Wells
n.d.