Charles Schreyvogel 1861-1912

J.N. Bartfield Galleries, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1978

James D. Horan, The Life and Art of Charles Schreyvogel: Painter-Historian of the Indian Fighting Army of the American West, New York, 1969, p. 27, illustration of another example fig. 39
Paul Rossi and David Hunt, The Art of the Old West, New York, 1971, illustration of another example p. 230
Patricia Janis Broder, Bronzes of the American West, New York, 1974, p. 205, illustrations of another example in color pp. 203-204

Very good condition. Bronze rests on a 2 ½ inch wooden base.
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Charles Schreyvogel, Remington's chief artistic competitor of the period, was initially exposed to frontier life through the spectacle of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show; he became close friends with the show's manager Nate Salisbury. It wasn't until 1893 when he was thirty-two that he first traveled west to the Ute Reservation in Colorado, where he sketched cowboys, Apaches and their ponies. While there, he interviewed many veterans of the plains wars, including officers, cavalrymen, and Indians, gathering details about their experiences. Schreyvogel was so inspired by their stories, that upon his return to his home in New Jersey he resolved to become the painter-historian of the Army of the American West. Depicting every detail of the Indian wars towards the end of the frontier period, Schreyvogel often portrayed the heroism of the cavalrymen in opening the West. For a cavalry trooper, his most important possession was his horse. The present sculpture depicts the soldier's devotion to his steed as he allows his horse to drink his last drop of water from his hat.