Catalogue entry
Emery Kolb, the original owner, was a Grand Canyon photographer, best known for his photographs of riders on the mule trips that went in to the Canyon. He was a friend of the artist and one of the executors of his estate. Edith Lehnert was his daughter. Kolb related that he hiked down the Bright Angel Trail with Widforss every day, for ten days, until this painting was completed. (Belknap, 1969). In two letters to his mother written in October 1930, Widforss worte that,"I have painted a picture of Pipe Creek. It took two hours to go down, 3 1/2 to go up - good exercise. Left the painting stuff down there, wrapped in a waterproof canvas. Have rarely had so much fun to work. Seeing new things in the scene. Experiencing the Grand Canyon stronger, more seriously. Planning to paint 40-50 large watercolors for an exhibition in New York."
After Widforss had completed his watercolor, Kolb told him that, "it was a great painting, but the composition is a little off." He found a dead agave plant and moved it into the view that Widforss had just painted and took a photograph of it. This is that photograph. Years later, Kolb, who was an amateur painter, made an oil painting from his photograph.
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