The next painter of the West was William de la M. Cary, who in 1861 made a trip across the plains with an army officer. There was still plenty of excitement, and the traveler had to be prepared against both wild man and beast. Mr. Cary made many sketches in the manner of Catlin, and sent home illustrations to the magazines, occasionally recording the humorous side of his adventures. His sketches were well received and appreciated.
GEORGE DE FOREST BRUSH
Some years ago George de Forest Brush gave considerable attention to the life of the Indian, and signed many pictures that remain classics in American art. Some of the themes were of the early Aztecs. Among the titles were “The Sculptor and the King” and “Aztec Sculptor.” More modern works were “The Silence Broken,” “Mourning Her Brave,” “Indian Hunter,” and many more, all of them works of fine imagination and admirable composition lines. Mr. Brush, who was born in Tennessee in 1855, was a pupil of the Paris government art school under the late J. L. Gérôme (zhay-romé), and is a distinguished draftsman as he is a commanding figure in American art. Of recent years, however, he has chosen other fields in which to exploit his talent; but of all the native painters, he has brought to his work on the Indian the best artistic equipment of any, and of the dozen subjects of the aborigines all are unusual, and of the highest excellence.
Copyright by W. de la M. Cary
“FORTY-NINERS” CROSSING THE PLAINS
By William de la M. Cary
REMINGTON AND THE SPIRIT OF THE WEST
The painters of the Great West, however, were yet to come. Men were to arrive who would catch something of the spirit of the life there, who were to record the romance of the savage, the soldier, the cowboy; the latter in particular,—a picturesque group of men the outcome of peculiar conditions, men who rounded up the cattle, and were apparently a race apart, of prodigious recklessness, hardihood, and bravery, who lived in the saddle almost continuously, save when occasionally they strayed into the frontier town to squander their pay. These were, as the late Frederic Remington quaintly phrased it, “Men with the bark on.” Remington (1861-1909) was himself to be the first of the modern group to treat the West with artistic sympathy, and his name rises instantly when any mention is made of the plains. First of all, the man himself was a genuine lover of the open, of nature in its wildest aspects. For him the horse, the prairie, the blue sky! He should have been an army officer. He was, almost; for he accompanied the troops on many of their campaigns and was as well known to the captains as he was to the troopers and many of the Indians.
