Invocation, 1916, Oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches, Signed. PRICE ON REQUEST Anthropologists and religious scholars alike define a shaman as an intermediary between the natural and spiritual world, who travels between the two in a trance-like state. The beauty of the transformation can be seen by few, and the visual and emotional essence of this metamorphosis is captured by only those whom are granted the privilege. Julius Rolshoven, one of the most distinguished painters of southwestern portraits and landscapes of the 20th century embraces all the elements of the Pueblo people of Taos, New Mexico and captures one of the most compelling, ethereal moment that the community experiences. It is a rare fortune when a work of art is created that is more than just visually and aesthetically pleasing, but speaks volumes about the spiritual, religious and political voice of a people. The shaman, depicted through thick, sweeping layers and brushstrokes, is suspended in a moment of transcendence between mortal and spiritual being. Shamanism is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible forces or spirits that affect the lives of the living. In Native American groups, only the shaman had the power to commune with the spirits, to mediate between them and ordinary mortals, and to talk with the souls of the dead on behalf of the living. By symbolic death and resurrection, he acquired a new mode of being -his physical and mental frame underwent a thorough change. During this period of initiation, the novice would see the spirits of the universe and leave his body, soaring through the heavens and underworld. Surrounded by heavenly white, seraphic-like brushstrokes, this crucially climactic moment is captured, stunningly, in a single image devoid of ulterior figures or a definitive environment. At this moment, the shaman is captured invoking the essence of the eagle. The nature of the eagle is empowered by shamans for soaring above earthly matters to gain perspective and clarity. It assists him in transcending the mundane and perceiving the deepest truth at the heart of the situation, it enhances creative vision, and facilitates the opening to the divine for creative inspiration. Here in this moment clarity, the shaman is conjuring such abilities as control over weather, divination, the interpretation of dreams, astral projection and traveling to other worlds. A work of art with this kind of religious and emotional significance does not surface often. It is quite extraordinary when something that holds so much history and enlightenment about a culture and is also so visually compelling comes into the market. The presence and life of this painting is truly something of another world.