Highlights from the Collection

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Berlin, Germany. Royal Academy. Art Association. Masterpieces of American Painting, 1910, no. 19.
Munich, Germany. Art Association. Masterpieces of American Painting, 1910, no. 19.
Cincinnati, Ohio. Rudolph Wurlitzer Gallery. Exhibition of the Work of Henry F. Farny, May 18–June 3, 1935.
Ohio. Cincinnati Art Museum. Henry F. Farny and the American Indian, March 2–April 4, 1943, no. 29.
Quebec. Art Association of Montreal. 1948.
New York. Grand Central Art Galleries. Remington to Today, April 5–30, 1955.
Colorado. Denver Art Museum. Building the West, October 9–November 27, 1955.
Texas. Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. Famous Paintings and Famous Painters, October 3–November 2, 1958.
Santa Fe. Fine Arts Museum of New Mexico. The Artist in the American West: 1800–1900, October 6–November 22, 1961.
New York. IBM Gallery of Arts and Sciences. Art of the American Frontier, March 23–April 18, 1964, no. 15.
Fort Worth, Texas. Amon Carter Museum of Western Art. Works of Henry F. Farny, October 7–December 1, 1965.
Washington, D.C. National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Art in New Mexico, 1900–1945: Paths to Taos and Santa Fe, March 6–June 15, 1986.
Ohio. Cincinnati Art Museum. Art in New Mexico, 1900–1945: Paths to Taos and Santa Fe, July 18–September 21, 1986.
Houston, Texas. Museum of Fine Arts. Art in New Mexico, 1900–1945: Paths to Taos and Santa Fe, October 31, 1986–January 4, 1987.
Colorado. Denver Art Museum. Art in New Mexico, 1900–1945: Paths to Taos and Santa Fe, February 18–April 19, 1987.
Ohio. Cincinnati Art Museum. Henry Farny: The Lure of the West, February 14–May 25, 1997.
Minnesota. Minneapolis Institute of Arts. November 6, 2001–August 6, 2003 (during TMA renovation).
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Modern West: American Landscapes, 1890–1950, March 4, 2007–June 3, 2007.
Ohio. Cincinnati Art Museum. The Vanishing Frontier: Rookwood, Farny, and the Native American, October 20, 2007–January 20, 2008.
Cincinnati, Ohio. Taft Museum of Art. In a New Light: Treasures from the Taft, July 3, 2021–May 1, 2022.

A Plains Indian man presses his ear against a telegraph pole. Wearing an eagle feather and holding a rifle, the lone hunter has slung three deer onto his packhorse. A skull in the snow represents the bison, once the lifeblood of the Plains peoples but nearly extinct by the 1880s. The sun sets over the winter landscape, signaling the twilight of the man’s way of life. Long before Henry Farny painted this scene, Native Americans had already suffered for generations as the United States government forced group after group onto reservations.

More to the Story
In 1881, Henry Farny journeyed to the Great Sioux Reservation, the first of at least four trips to the American West during which he sketched people and landscapes, took photographs, and acquired artifacts. Back in his Cincinnati studio, he used these materials to create romanticized and nostalgic paintings of Native American life. At times, Farny got details wrong: the painted bison hide worn by the man in this painting would have been a woman’s garment.

Created by the artist; purchased by Charles Phelps Taft [1843-1929] and Anna Sinton Taft [1850-1931], Cincinnati, OH, about 1905; donated to the Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts, Cincinnati, OH, May 21, 1927 [1]; transferred to the Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH, September 1, 2006 [2].

Notes:

[1]. The Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts (CIFA) was formed by Charles Phelps and Anna Sinton Taft on March 22, 1927 as a non-profit corporation to stimulate the development of art and music in the City of Cincinnati and run the Taft Museum of Art, which opened in 1932. The Tafts offered $1 million for a permanent endowment fund, on the condition that the community raise $2.5 million in matching funds, which was achieved by December 3, 1928. [2]. Until August 31, 2006, the Museum was owned by CIFA, administered by CIFA’s Board of Trustees, and governed by the Taft Museum Board of Overseers. On September 1, 2006, the Museum legally separated from CIFA and began operations as its own incorporated 501(c)(3) entity. This separate incorporation led to the transfer to the separate entity after August 31, 2006 of all tangible assets comprising the Taft collection.

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