Maynard Dixon (American, 1875-1946) Arizona Desert, 1915 Oil on canvas 20 x 30 inches (50.8 x 76.2 cm) Property of a Prominent Texas Collector PROVENANCE: The artist; Private collection, Berkeley, California; Hansen Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Owings-Dewey Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico, acquired from the above, 1988; Torch Energy Advisors Inc., acquired from the above, 1994; Acquired by the present owner from the above, 2003. LITERATURE: D. Hagerty, J. Dixon, Desert Dreams: The Art and Life of Maynard Dixon, Layton, Utah, 1998, pp. 80, 83, no. 59, illustrated. Painted in 1915, Arizona Desert reflects a pivotal moment in Maynard Dixon's artistic evolution, when he began to move beyond his earlier illustrative manner toward a more personal, modernist vision of the American West. This shift was catalyzed by his exposure to the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, where encounters with American Impressionism and French modern painting reshaped his understanding of color, light, and spatial structure. Dixon's subsequent trip to Arizona that same year proved transformative. Working directly from the landscape, he absorbed the region's vast horizontality, luminous atmosphere, and subtle chromatic variations. In Arizona Desert, these lessons coalesce in a composition defined by a low, extended horizon and an expansive sky, where delicately modulated tones and broken color evoke the shimmering heat and quiet immensity of the desert. The surface, alive with varied brushwork, retains traces of Impressionist influence while anticipating the simplification and structural clarity that would come to define his mature style. This work stands as an early and eloquent statement of Dixon's commitment to translating direct observation into a distinctly modern language, one that would ultimately secure his place among the most progressive interpreters of the Western landscape. HID12401132022 © 2026 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice

The artist; Private collection, Berkeley, California; Hansen Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Owings-Dewey Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico, acquired from the above, 1988; Torch Energy Advisors Inc., acquired from the above, 1994; Acquired by the present owner from the above, 2003.

The painting is housed in an original Tres Mowka Designs frame.
Framed Dimensions 25 X 35 Inches