Maynard Dixon (American, 1875–1946) Hunter and Bear, 1916 Gouache on paperboard 16 × 11 in. Frame: 23 ½ × 18 ¼ × 1 ⅝ in. Signed and dated in pencil, lower left: Maynard Dixon / 1916 Also titled Surprised by a Bear on an alternate frame label
Painted in 1916, Hunter and Bear captures a moment of sudden confrontation in the wilderness. A seated hunter, rifle cast aside, turns toward a rearing bear that emerges from the shadowed forest behind him. Dixon heightens the drama through bold simplification of form and a limited palette of warm ochres and deep browns, punctuated by sharp white highlights.
The composition reflects Dixon’s early narrative sensibility, when his work often explored themes of frontier life and human vulnerability within the Western landscape. Even at this stage, his confident brushwork and sculptural modeling of light and shadow anticipate the modernist clarity that would define his later mature style.
