Size of poster is 22" x 28"
Oscar Peterson Rainbow Trout Fish Decoy
Oscar Peterson / Rainbow Trout Decoy
Painted wood with attached metal fins and carved, painted eyes. Length 12" c.1930's
Born of Swedish parents in 1894, Oscar Peterson was an outdoorsman who spent his youth hunting and fishing in the lower Michigan Peninsula. He eventually settled in Cadillac, Michigan and was active as a wilderness guide in the area all his life. Peterson's involvement with decoys began as a child and continued his entire life.
He spent nearly fifty years carving and painting with a fluency, industry and imagination unique to the art form.
Peterson's distinctive paint style and wonderfully whimsical approach to decoy carving have distinguished him as the preeminent creator of
American Ice Fishing decoys. Widely copied and counterfeited, his works, such as the one illustrated above, have been among the most valuable and highly sought-after of all American Folk Art objects.
A man of powerful imagination and equally well-developed technical gifts, Oscar Peterson's output ranged beyond decoys to include decorative objects and freestanding sculptures striking for their mix of folklore naiveté and artistic refinement. He prided himself on his ability to carve anything he could see a photograph of.
Peterson's prominence derives not only from the quality of his work, but also from its quantity. Unlike most of the other carvers, who worked
when the spirit moved them or necessity demanded, Peterson approached decoy making as a profession, selling to the tourist trade and using the money to supplement his earnings as a landscaper.
His exact output is impossible to calculate, but most estimates put it at between ten and fifteen thousand decoys, of which perhaps ten percent still exist.
Poster is printed in 6 colors in the United States on heavyweight poster paper.
All FishDecoy.com Master Carver Fish Decoy posters ship rolled in crush-proof tubes.