Walter Whitehead, American
“The Fast and the Furious: This Time It’s Canoes,” 1923
Oil on canvas
Follow That Is Priceless on Social Media and GoComics (the Link button):
Click to Follow This Blog or Share This Masterpiece:
MASTERPIECE #3155
Info about this artist can be found here and here. He current has no Wikipedia page in any language.
If the attribution hasn’t changed from Anonymous, this painting is actually by Walter Whitehead, American (1874-1956). His 2W (little one above the larger one) monogram is between the 19 and 23 at the lower right. He’s the artist referred to in my above comment.
/// In a fast-moving stream, Canoe Lookout,
shows two men racing down to a cookout.
Guy in back does the rowing,
(since he looks where they’re going).
Man in front grasps a rifle he took out.
/// Toward the right shore he peers for a sight.
(Of some enemies eager to fight?)
Might be Indians there.
See the rowing man’s hair—
straight black braids, he’s a native all right.
/// I’ve maligned the man kneeling in front.
Seems he pulled out his rifle to hunt.
Where they’re going to eat
they must bring their own meat,
and he thought that he heard a bear grunt.
/// If it’s bear hunting you wish to do,
you ought not do it from a canoe.
Even if you succeed,
after both of you feed
there’s still too much to take back with you.
/// When the lure of “The Great Outdoors” calls,
these men paddle despite storms and squalls
in their craft of birch bark.
Stream speeds up after dark;
up ahead there are fifty-foot falls.
/// With no moon, they did not see the edge
of the falls, and bounced off a ledge.
The sharp rocks at the bottom
are what finally got ‘em.
Their canoe was recovered by dredge.