Description:

George Rodrigue
American/Louisiana, 1944-2013
"Waiting for the Ride (Looking for Summer Shade)"
oil on canvas
1973, signed lower left and en verso, titled, inscribed "#7719" and 3 "George Rodrigue Gallery Lafayette, LA" stamps on stretcher, exhibition label with artist, title and date on reverse of frame, framed.

36 x 24 in. (91.4 x 61 cm.), Frame: 44 1/2 x 32 1/2 x 1 3/4 in. (113 x 82.6 x 4.4 cm.)

Provenance: Acquired from the artist; Roland Begneaud Family Collection, Lafayette, LA.

Ill.: Freundlich, Lawrence S.  George Rodrigue: A Cajun Artist. New York: Penguin Group, 1996, pl. 64, p. 89.

Exh.: "George Rodrigue: Cajuns and Blue Dogs / Paintings from Louisiana Family Collections 1971-2008", Louisiana State Museum Wedell Williams Aviation and Cypress Sawmill Museum, Patterson, LA, July 17 - Nov. 29, 2008.

Often based on 1920s-30s period photographs from his mother's album, Rodrigue's early Cajun paintings reflect his interpretation of a fading era and his own Louisiana Cajun heritage with a contemporary and unique approach. His timeless figures inhabit a landscape clearly both familiar and beloved by the artist. In "Waiting for the Ride" (alternately titled "Looking for Summer Shade"), Rodrigue depicts three girls, one holding a ruffled parasol and two with wide-brimmed hats, seeking solace from the heat of a summer day under an oak tree. They are arrayed in front of a rectangular hitching post which serves to hint at the nature of their "ride" and anchors them within the composition. The two sources of light, the girls' white garb and the sun glowing beneath the tree, serve to highlight the often-shadowed landscape of Acadiana and allow Rodrigue's Cajuns to shine from within with the symbolic hope of a displaced people. 

Rodrigue captured the folklore and culture of the Cajuns at a time when it was slipping away and evolving into something new. So often, the beautiful and distinguishing aspects of a society are lost to time through this process. Rodrigue found a way through his distinctive graphic language to preserve and protect these stories. His early canvases, such as this one, are simultaneously personal, historical and modern. 

  • Condition: No signs of past restoration; some colors fluoresce under UV light but appear to be hand of the artist; surface dirt; toning of the uneven varnish layer; few scattered pinpoint accretions throughout; few scattered small losses of surface layer of paint along mid and upper right near edge; gold paint accretions, abrasions and small losses along all edges from contact with frame; scattered pinpoint paint losses throughout tree; 5-inch break to fillet along right inner frame edge; frame has marks, nicks, abrasions and surface dirt.

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January 24, 2025 11:00 AM CST
New Orleans, LA, US

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