Historians of the Tribe
1890–99
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
62.2 × 111.4 cm (24 1/4 × 43 7/8 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
97909
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Executed around 1890, the year when the massacre at Wounded Knee effectively ended the army’s conflict with the Plains Indians, Historians of the Tribe clearly situates the glories of Native Americans in the past. In a tightly defined, darkened interior, watched over by a tribal elder in the central background, five men—their postures slumped or languid in surrender—record and reread their hieroglyphic history. At the moment of their defeat, Remington chose to depict his Native American subjects...
About the Artist
Frederic Remington · 1861–1909
Frederic Remington (1861–1909) was an American painter, sculptor, and illustrator who became the preeminent visual chronicler of the American West. Born in Canton, New York, he studied briefly at the Yale School of the Fine Arts and the Art Students League of New York before making his first trip west in 1881, where he found the subject matter that would define his career. Remington's paintings a...