Cane with Diverse Shields: on view at Smithsonian American Art Museum

Artists decorate canes with a wide variety of images, from traditional carvings of snakes and birds, to nude women, political figures, and celebrities. Some artists highlight the natural shape of the wood by applying relief designs onto twisted branches and roots, while others carve three-dimensional shapes into the shaft. Images of animals are the most popular decoration, but many canes also show patriotic, fraternal, and political themes. (George Meyer, American Folk Art Canes, 1992)

Cane with Diverse Shields

About the sculpture

Particulars

In the same room · Luce Foundation Center, 3rd Floor, 28A, Smithsonian American Art Museum

On the same theme · Animal

Yes, receiving visitors

What it shows

In the catalog

Sources

Muskrat, before 1997

Fish Decoy, ca. 1940

"BLUE DOG" Shark, ca. 1922-1928

Pike Decoy, ca. 1920

Cane inscribed FORET DE LAIGUE, 1918

Cane inscribed THY ROD AND THY STAFF--THEY COMFORT ME, 1911

Fish Decoy, ca. 1900

Cane inscribed REMEMBER THE MAINE & OUR HEROES DEWEY, SCHLEY & HOBSON, after 1898

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884–86, border added 1888–89

The Bull (Le taureau), 1946

The Bull (Le taureau), 1945

The Bull (Le taureau), 1945

The Poor (Les pauvres), 1905, published 1913

Dream and Lie of Franco I, 1937

The Bull (Le taureau), 1946

The Frog (Les Grenouilles), 1936