Producer unknown to us
Figurine, labeled as “Rain God”
Americas, USA, New Mexico, Tesuque Pueblo
1900 to 1908
Clay
Rudolf Daniel Ludwig Cronau (journalist, author, painter, illustrator)
Purchased by the museum from Rudolf Cronau in 1908
NAm 01473
Such "rain gods" are a fashionable form of Pueblo figurative craft that emerged in Tesuque beginning in 1870 and produced several thousand such clay figurines for the tourist and art markets until about 1925. Although over fifty museums worldwide collected such figurines, the rain gods were nevertheless frowned upon by art dealers as "inauthentic" tourist merchandise. The many Santa Fe-based curio dealers, on the other hand, encouraged this new art form, probably even influencing its development.
Collector Rudolf Cronau (1855–1939) was a Saxon journalist, author, and artist. From his first trips to the United States beginning in 1881, he drew scenes of the American West, including portraits of Indigenous people, and thus also shaped the fascination with "America" in Saxony.
Frank Usbeck