About the Artwork
Indian Telegraph
1860
John Mix Stanley
1814-1872
American
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Oil on canvas
Unframed: 20 × 15 1/2 inches (50.8 × 39.4 cm) Framed: 27 3/8 × 23 3/8 × 2 7/8 inches (69.5 × 59.4 × 7.3 cm)
Paintings
American Art before 1950
Detroit Museum of Art Purchase, Popular Subscription Fund
01.2
Public Domain
Markings
Signed and dated, lower left: J. M. Stanley | 1860
Inscribed, on the back of the canvas, beneath lining: The scene is laid amidst the rugged ground of the Gila river country and represents a party of Apaches advising their friends of the advance of General Kearney's expedition. In the foreground stands a high rock, iluminated by the rays of the declining sun. A party of Apaches are approaching while two have already scaled the rocks and one of them is waving a smoking foggot on high and the other is shading his eyes from the sun's rays with his hand. In the distance, across the valley to the left, a faint streak of smoke rises from behind a hill, which appears to be the answer to the signal. A mountain range dimly looming up on the horizen completes the picture.
Provenance
1868, Mrs. M. Noble Brainard;1901-present, purchase by the Detroit Museum of Art (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Kinietz, W. Vernon. John Mix Stanley and his Indian Paintings. Ann Arbor, Michigan,1942 pl. 13.
Custer, Gen. George Armstrong, My Life on the Plains. Chicago, 1952, p. 490 (ill.).
The Last Frontier. Exh. cat., Nelson-Atkins Gallery of Art. Kansas City, 1957, no. 64.
The Noble Savage. Exh. cat., University of Pennsylvania Museum. Philadelphia, 1958, no. 67.
John Mix Stanley: A Traveler in the West. Exh. cat., University of Michigan Museum of Art. Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1969, no. 7 (ill.).
Comstock, Helen, ed. The Concise Encyclopedia of American Antiques, vol. 2. New York, 1965, pl. 240 A.
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Credit Line for Reproduction
John Mix Stanley, Indian Telegraph, 1860, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit Museum of Art Purchase, Popular Subscription Fund, 01.2.
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