Strausenback as Artist, Part II: Lithographs and Etchings

This blog is adapted from Chapter 7: “Trader as Artist” in our book Garden of the Gods Trading Post. This series of three blogs not only expands on the information in our book, but also reproduces the artwork in color since the book was printed in black-and-white.

Charles Strausenback, founder of Garden of the Gods Trading Post, had been painting and drawing from a young age. But in the summer of 1938 he began working in a new medium, and produced a series of limited-edition lithographs and etchings over the next two years. The decision to make prints over original artwork was likely driven by economics; whereas his paintings sold for about $35 each, lithos could be sold for the more appealing price of $7.50 for small prints up to $12.50 for the largest. 

The lithographs were produced in editions ranging from twenty prints per image to editions as large as fifty impressions. Landscapes from Garden of the Gods were frequent subjects of Strausenback’s artwork.

This print titled Gateway and Pikes Peak was Charles Strausenback’s first lithograph. On the bottom of the artist’s proof he noted in pencil, “1st Litho I ever made Aug 1938.” (Courtesy Private Collection)
Litho number 3 depicts Cathedral Spires in Garden of the Gods.
Charles Strausenback’s fourth litho subject was Balanced Rock, made in 1938. A self-taught artist, he frequently copied his subjects from photographs and postcards, as was the case with this view. 

It’s tempting to speculate Strausenback had his lithographs inked and pulled by Out West Printing and Stationary Company, as they were the only company listed under the “Lithographing” section of the 1938 Colorado Springs city directory. But none of the prints have yet provided a source for the printer.

The lithographs encompass a series of forty-five unique illustrations, depicting scenes from the Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak and scenic venues around Colorado Springs, also landscapes of Arizona including Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and the Superstition Mountains, as well as New Mexico adobes, and even San Juan Capistrano Mission in California. 

Strausenback depicted the Grand Canyon, as viewed from the South Rim, in two different styles in the lithographs above and below. This print, number 10 titled Grand Canyon shows a traditional view of the canyon. 
This print is number 15, also titled Grand Canyon, and is Strausenback’s modern rendition with simplistic flat mesa tops and the Colorado River flowing like a ribbon through the middle of the scene. Both prints were made in 1938.
Number S-40, Adobes, depicts a New Mexico scene in sepia tone and was produced in a series of 30 prints.

In 1936 the Strausenbacks began spending winter months in Phoenix, Arizona, and desert landscapes became a subject of Charles’s artwork. Many desert scenes were depicted in his lithos, actually surpassing the Colorado scenes in quantity, these were sold from the Strausenback Indian Silver Shops in Phoenix. 

Litho number S-45 is a sepia toned print depicting the Superstition Mountains, on the outskirts of Phoenix, under a night sky.
These lithos were printed two-up on the same piece of paper and were never separated. On the left is number 20, titled Yucca, on the right is number 21 Saguaro.

Additionally, Strausenback made portraits of the Navajo and Pueblo Indians who worked for him; Awa Tsireh, Severo Tafoya, and Porfilia Tafoya were among his subjects.

Number S-25, Ca-Ping in sepia tone.
Number 14, titled Monument Valley depicts the Arizona landscape as a modern design. 

To accommodate the tourist market accustomed to purchasing postcard souvenirs of their visits to Garden of the Gods, Charles Strausenback produced a series of five scratchboard prints of scenes from the Pikes Peak region that sold at budget prices. Approximately postcard-sized, these prints were not signed by Strausenback and were printed in editions of 100. 

A series of five scratchboard postcard-sized prints, numbers 34 Gateway, 35 Garden of the Gods, 36 Pikes Peak, 37 Balanced Rock, and 39 Will Roger’s Shrine were not hand signed but were titled and numbered in pencil.

Cowboy themes used in his very first paintings reemerged in Strausenback’s art as he made prints of a speeding stagecoach, cowboys on bucking broncs, and western towns. 

Number 38, Soapy Williams Rides Firefly was copied from a popular postcard entitled “Soapy Williams on Glass Eye.”
Number 45A, titled Out West “Before the Gay 90’s” is the only color lithograph Charles Strausenback ever created. The sign on the train station appears to read “Espanola”, a town close to Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico.

Along with the lithographs Strausenback also experimented with copper plate etchings, and a small series were made with subjects such as Navajos and Plains Indians, Garden of the Gods, and the mountains near Phoenix. 

This etching, titled Navajos, depicts two men in traditional dress. The subjects are placed in a spatial void in the style typical of American Indian easel art of the early 20th century. 

Each lithograph or etching was originally accompanied by a small green-colored paper certificate with the title of the print and the size of the edition hand written in pencil by Strausenback. Few of these have survived to the present.

These lithographs and etchings provide evidence that Strausenback was a talented, if underrated, artist, not just an astute businessman.

Strausenback’s lithos were numbered in the image in the order that they were created. The series number and a capital S for Strausenback were drawn into the image, typically in the bottom right corner, hidden among the elements of the subject matter. The etchings were not identified in the same fashion. The lithos were typically hand signed in the following fashion:

Title of the illustration in the bottom left corner, this print is “Awa Tsireh” San Ildefonso Pueblo.
In the middle is the number of the litho followed by the size of the edition. In this instance 14/S-20 indicates the print is number 14 of an edition of 20 sepia toned prints.
The bottom right corner of series S-26 “Awa Tsireh,” San Ildefonso Pueblo in sepia tone showing the capital S for Strausenback and series number 26 inscribed into the image above his signature.

Below is a chart of the series number, title and edition size of Charles Strausenback’s prints as known at present. One print, Mount Holy Cross, Colo has not yet had its series number recorded.

Series NoTitleEdition Size
1Gateway and Pikes Peak25
2South Cheyenne Canyon
3Cathedral Spires25
4Balanced Rock25
5Superstition Mountains30
6If This Isn’t Pike’s Peak30
7
8
9Pikes Peak from Woodland Park30
10Grand Canyon50
11San Juan Capistrano50
12Mountain Valley25
13San Xavier Mission – Ariz.50
14Monument Valley, Ariz25
15Grand Canyon30
16Painted Desert, Arizona30
17
18Superstition Mountain- Ariz.50
19Santiago Naranjo50
20Yucca50
21Saguaro50
22Camelback Mountain Ariz50
23
24
25“Ca-Ping” Pueblo Indian
S-25“Ca-Ping” Pueblo Indian, sepia20
26“Awa Tsireh” San Ildefonso Pueblo50
S-26“Awa Tsireh” San Ildefonso Pueblo, sepia20
27Pottery Seller50
28“O-See-Thune” Pueblo woman 108 years old50
29Gertrude Silver, Navajo Princess50
30Corn Dance50
31Gateway & Pikes Peak40
S-31Gateway & Pikes Peak, Sepia30
32Balanced Rock40
S-32Balanced Rock, sepia30
33Out West “Before The Gay 90’s”30
34Gateway, scratchboard100
35Garden of Gods, scratchboard100
36Pike’s Peak, scratchboard100
37Balanced Rock, scratchboard100
38Soapy Williams Rides Firefly50
39Will Roger’s Shrine, scratchboard100
40Adobes20
S-40Adobes, sepia30
41Wind Harps, Timberline
S-42In Before Dark, sepia35
43Out West “Before The Gay ’90’s”
44Desert Sunset40
S-45Superstition Mountains at Night, sepia30
45AOut West “Before The Gay ’90’s”, color31
unknownMt. Holy Cross, Colo
Superstition Mt, Ariz, etching40
Navajos, etching35
Buffalo Hunt, etching35
Camel Back Mt Ariz, etching35
Gateway, miniature, etching

Strausenback As Artist, Part III: Trading Post Murals

This blog is adapted from Chapter 6: “A Lifetime in the Garden” in our book Garden of the Gods Trading Post. This series of three blogs not only expands on the information in our book, but also reproduces the artwork in color since the book was printed in black-and-white.

When Garden of the Gods Trading Post opened in 1929 Charles Strausenback’s skills as an artist were put to good use. He painted a large version of his company logo on the porch façade. 

Left, hand tinted postcard showing the porch of the Trading Post in 1929. Right, original artwork sent to the US Copyright Office in 1926 of a Tewa Thunderbird attacking a rattlesnake painted by Charles Strausenback, adapted from a painting by Awa Tsireh. The copyright was granted and this logo was used for Strausenback’s business Garden of the Gods Curio Company and later for the Trading Post. Courtesy Garden of the Gods Trading Post.

He also painted murals on the exterior porch walls depicting Navajo, Hopi, Zuni and Rio Grande Pueblo figures. 

Garden of the Gods Trading Post photographed by the authors in 2019 showing the murals painted on the porch walls.

These murals were copied from other artist’s work, for example the mural painted by the left side door of a Pueblo woman emerging from a kiva is a copy of a painting by San Ildefonso artist Awa Tsireh, now in the collection of the Firestone Library at Princeton University, https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2015/08/30/awa-tsireh-1898-1955/.

Additionally the Zuni Shalako figure painted between two windows was copied from a 1900 painting by Mary Wright Gill reproduced in the 23rd Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology 1901-1902. 

The other murals depict a Navajo sandpainting of Yei figures, and a Hopi sunface kachina. 

These murals are signed Tong Say Ontya 1929. Evidence suggests this was a name used infrequently by Charles Strausenback on his artwork.

More proof of the use of this pseudonym by Strausenback is this opaque watercolor painting of a Pueblo corn dance signed “Tong Say Ontya 1933.” Below the painted signature is Strausenback’s name and 1933 written in pencil. 

Pueblo Corn Dance painting signed “Tong Say Ontya 1933” and also signed in pencil “Strausenback 1933.” (Private Collection)

The painting style is consistent with Strausenback’s as indicated by the below lithograph entitled Corn Dance made by Strausenback in 1939. The litho is nearly identical to the 1933 painting, except for the added background, to indicate they were made by the same artist.

Strausenback’s talent was also utilized on the fireplace constructed in the interior of the trading post. Tiles designed by Awa Tsireh, and made from commercial clay at a factory in Denver were inlaid in the surface and Strausenback painted Navajo Yei figures and a Pueblo cloud design on the front.