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Source Description

Extracts from Alfred Jacob Miller’s original text, which accompanied his images of Native Americans, are included below for reference. "The scene of action is near the cut rocks. An Indian on a well-trained horse has separated a Buffalo from the herd and is about to have a shot at him, others are going pell-mell after the tretreating herd among the hills in the background. In the immediate foreground is a horse unaccustomed to the chase, frightened at the unweieldly brute's noise and confusion about him. The prairie is admirably adopted to these hunts, from its level surface,- freedom from bogs, quicksand, and interruptions of any kind. Hunters of the fox in civilized life would consider this hard work,- indeed to make a successful hunter of these huge brutes requires long practice both of men & horses, and is always attended with more or less danger." A.J. Miller, extracted from "The West of Alfred Jacob Miller" (1837).In July 1858 William T. Walters commissioned 200 watercolors at twelve dollars apiece from Baltimore born artist Alfred Jacob Miller. These paintings were each accompanied by a descriptive text, and were delivered in installments over the next twenty-one months and ultimately were bound in three albums. Transcriptions of field-sketches drawn during the 1837 expedition that Miller had undertaken to the annual fur-trader's rendezvous in the Green River Valley (in what is now western Wyoming), these watercolors are a unique record of the closing years of the western fur trade.

Scholar Source Context

Document identity
localId
29924
label
Running Buffalo
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
29924
contentType
drawing
stage
normalized
title
Running Buffalo
description
Extracts from Alfred Jacob Miller’s original text, which accompanied his images of Native Americans, are included below for reference. "The scene of action is near the cut rocks. An Indian on a well-trained horse has separated a Buffalo from the herd and is about to have a shot at him, others are going pell-mell after the tretreating herd among the hills in the background. In the immediate foreground is a horse unaccustomed to the chase, frightened at the unweieldly brute's noise and confusion about him. The prairie is admirably adopted to these hunts, from its level surface,- freedom from bogs, quicksand, and interruptions of any kind. Hunters of the fox in civilized life would consider this hard work,- indeed to make a successful hunter of these huge brutes requires long practice both of men & horses, and is always attended with more or less danger." A.J. Miller, extracted from "The West of Alfred Jacob Miller" (1837).In July 1858 William T. Walters commissioned 200 watercolors at twelve dollars apiece from Baltimore born artist Alfred Jacob Miller. These paintings were each accompanied by a descriptive text, and were delivered in installments over the next twenty-one months and ultimately were bound in three albums. Transcriptions of field-sketches drawn during the 1837 expedition that Miller had undertaken to the annual fur-trader's rendezvous in the Green River Valley (in what is now western Wyoming), these watercolors are a unique record of the closing years of the western fur trade.
provenance
William T. Walters, Baltimore, 1858-1860, by commission; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894, by inheritance; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
1858-1860
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Painting & Drawing
watercolors (paintings)
imageCount
1
pageCount
1
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
25.4
height
34
dimensionsRaw
H: 10 x W: 13 3/8 in. (25.4 x 34 cm)
Source extras
med
watercolor on paper
creator_ids
4486
collection_ids
EAN
exhibition_ids
2165
2898
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
dc05442701b52869