Description:

George Rodrigue
American/Louisiana, 1944-2013
"Tee Coon, My Friend"
oil on canvas
1991, signed lower right, signed, titled and dated en verso, framed.

Note: Much like Jolie Blonde or Evangeline were frequently recurring subjects of George Rodrigue's canvases, so too was Tee Coon. Unlike those legends of Cajun mythology, however, Tee Coon had a personal and lasting impact on the young artist and many others over the years as the janitor at Catholic High in New Iberia, Louisiana where the artist attended school. As evidenced by the title of the work offered here, Tee Coon was a good friend of Rodrigue's, and his likeness was immortalized dozens of times over the years in Rodrigue's paintings. Tee Coon's image served as the model for many of Rodrigue's quintessential Cajun men - the drooping brown hat and dark mustache making him an instantly recognizable figure. He can be spotted in "Clopha and Coco at Theriot's Landing," "Life Passes on the Bayou," "Bayou Protectors," "Ghosts of Past July Fourths" and "Indians, Cajuns, and Cowboys," among many others. In fact, he is who Rodrigue chose to depict as "The Cajun Ancestor."

In "Tee Coon, My Friend," Rodrigue created a rare, stand-alone portrait of his friend, naming him in the title and paying homage to the man himself. Rodrigue painted portraits throughout his career, beginning in the early 1970s and gaining a national reputation in the 1980s with a presidential portrait commission of Ronald Reagan. Rodrigue's portraits, even as they capture the essence of a particular sitter, retain the enduring qualities of the artist's carefully developed style and visual language that often transcend one individual or singular moment in time. In this charming work, Tee Coon looks out from the canvas, and the viewer is met with the stark gaze not only of the individual but of his entire associated iconography, as if the history of the Cajuns is staring right back. With this painting, Rodrigue successfully transforms a humble man and friend into an archetypal image, elevating him to a place directly alongside the great names of Cajun lore. Through his process of documenting and depicting legends of the past, Rodrigue created one of his own, that of Tee Coon.

  • Dimensions: 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm.), Frame: 19 7/8 x 16 3/4 x 1 3/4 in. (50.5 x 42.5 x 4.4 cm.)
  • Medium: oil on canvas
  • Condition: No signs of past restoration; pinpoint losses upper right and lightly scattered throughout, likely hand of the artist; very light scattered pinpoint accretions and surface dirt; frame has very small losses, light marks and nicks.

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July 3, 2025 1:00 PM CDT
New Orleans, LA, US

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