signed lower right
Note: This work is illustrated on page 78 of “History in Their Blood: The Indian Portraits of Nicholas de Grandmaison” (H. Dempsey; Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., Vancouver; 1982), with the following caption:
One evening de Grandmaison was attending an Indian rodeo and saw a beautiful Peigan girl. He asked her name, but she ran away. Later, he learned that she was the daughter of Sacred Owl and went to see if he could paint her. The girl refused, but the artist found her father Sacred Owl to be a good subject. Sacred Owl was born in 1887 and at the age of ten suffered a stroke that rendered him deaf and dumb, so he could communicate only through Indian sign language. Besides his registered name, his other names were Gopher and Yellow Horse, while his nickname was Muki’na.
