Red Horse 'Xunktanka Stanewe'. During the spring of 1876, Red Horse moved his band from the region of the Cheyenne River traveling through the Rosebud Valley and met with a large contingent of Sioux assembling on the west bank of the Little Bighorn river. As a head chief within the council lodge of the largest recorded Sioux camp, Red Horse fought both Custer and Reno. In 1881 at the Cheyenne River Agency, S.D., Red Horse created 41 ledger drawings illustrating his part in the famed battle. His story was published by the Bureau of American Ethnology in their Tenth Annual Report. (Harbaugh, P., 1982)
Wild Horse 'Xunktanka Wohitika'. An Oglala chief, Wild Horse was said to have been the brother of cousin of the great chief and leader, Crazy Horse, of whom no documented photograph is known. (Harbaugh, P., 1982)
Dimensions
23 X 19 cm
Size Overall
51 X 41 cm
Medium
Black and white photograph
Condition
Severe bowing back of both vertical edges away from mat.
American Horse 'Wasechum Taschunka' (1840-1908). 'Wasechum Taschunka' took on the name American Horse following the death of his uncle ate the Battle of Slim Buttes. During the reservation days, he was considered a notable progressive and became a head Oglala spokesman. As an orator and diplomat, he represented his people in numerous negotiations with the federal government. Following the tragedy of Wounded Knee he became the leader of a unified Sioux delegation which traveled to Washington seeking a more equitable treatment for the Sioux. In his later years he traveled with Buffalo Bill and the Wild West Show. (Harbaugh, P., 1982)
James (Jock) W. G. MacDonald was born in Thurso, Scotland in 1867. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art, and later worked as a fabric designer. He taught at Lincoln School of Art; Vancouver School of Art; School of Decorative and Applied Arts, Vancouver; Provincial Institute of Technology and Art, Calgary; and at Ontario College of Art after 1947. MacDonald was a member of Canadian Group of Painters and Painters Eleven. He died in Toronto in 1960. The artist was conducting independent experiments in Vancouver while the others worked in Winnipeg and Toronto. He had painted 'automatics' by 1934 and completely abstract or non-objective works by 1935 or 1936. (Painting in Canada: A History. Harper J. Russel. U of Toronto Press, 1977. P 327) Jock MacDonald was one of Canada's first painters to explore the relationship between abstraction and landscape. What MacDonald did is take the formal qualities of his subjects and isolate or abstract them form the landscape. (The History of Painting in Canada. Barry Lord. Toronto: NC Press, 1974. P 205-7)
Dimensions
23.5 X 33.5 cm
Size Overall
45 X 52.5 cm
Medium
watercolor
Condition
Slight cockling of surface.
Primary Support
paper
Secondary Support
mat, plexiglass, backing board; frame - wood and plaster with gild
Mild cockling and creasing of image. Paper has fallen down from the mat on the left side, and as a result is showing the backing board in the TR corner.
Surface is all together dirty. Numerous smudges and other surface accretions and is especially bad in the top horizontal register, which has multiple large smudges. Canvas is loose in the TL corner due to storage (another painting was leaning on it). T
Residue of tape in area CB of glass. Frame has small abrasion marks on top arm.
Primary Support
paper
Secondary Support
mat, plexiglass, backing board; frame- wood
Inscriptions
Note attached to back: Cecil E. James came to Canada in 1914 from Manchester, England. He started studies in art at the University of Saskatchewan in 1928, and is now operating an art gallery in Saskatoon. He has painted Canadian scenes from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island, but most of his work is of the Canadian Prairies. One could safely say that his paintings are in private collections in almost every country of the world. To name a few principals possessing a James painting: The Archbishop of Canterbury; His Excellency, Governor-General Roland Michener; John Diefenbaker, former Prime Minister of Canada; The Canadian Embassy in Berlin; Mr. H.W. Sturdy, British Government representative; Saskatchewan Wheat Pool; Saskatchewan House, London; Dairy Pool; Colonel Sanders of Kentucky; Pioneer Grain Co.; The Hon. Jean Lesage; Saskatchewan Power Corporation; Saskatchewan Arts Board.