The Pipe Maker Oil on Board 12" x 16" Signed lower right: E. I. COUSE Framed to 19 1/2" x 23 1/2" Circa 1920 Biltmore Galleries label attached verso. Desert Caballeros Western Museum 2010 exhibition label attached verso. Pencil notation verso: The Pipe Maker / E. Irving Couse. Includes an original letter signed by Virginia Couse Leavitt regarding the painting, her admiration of it, and correspondence about it from the Couse archives. Also includes, from Virginia Couse Leavitt and the Couse Family Archives, couples of correspondence between E.I. Couse (in his hand) and the Newhouse Galleries, St. Louis, regarding the painting, for which the gallery ultimately paid Couse $255. Virginia Couse Leavitt is the granddaughter of Eanger Irving Couse. She is an art historian, author, founding member of the Couse Foundation, and considered THE authority on Couse's work. "This is a particularly fine example of a firelight by my grandfather. The color in it is extraordinary, particularly in the light of the fire reflected on the skin of the Indian. Couse was well known for the skin tones he achieved in his figures, and his picture demonstrates this ability in a special way." --Virginia Couse Leavitt, from her correspondence