Tom Lovell
1909-1997
Five Miles Ahead of the Column
MEDIUM: Oil on board
DIMENSIONS: 24 x 36 inches
Signed NAWA and dated 79 lower right
SHIPPING DIMENSIONS: 34 x 46 inches
Available
$60,000.00
Including Buyers Premium
AVAILABLE FOR SALE,
LOT 329
Additional Information
Provenance:
Regina Giesecke Collection, Ballinger, Texas
Sold by decent in family partnership, Scottsdale, Arizona
Literature:
The Art of Tom Lovell: An Invitation to History, Text by Don Hedgpeth and Walt Reed, published by William Morrow and
Company, Inc, New York, NY, 1993; illustrated p. 94
Painted in 1979, Tom Lovell’s Five Miles Ahead of the Column shows a quiet moment between an officer and two scouts. “Sporadic violence between whites and Indians increased in the decade of the 1850s. Treaties were abrogated as white settlers and miners laid claims to the land of the buffalo range. Reprisals followed, and all-out war seemed a certainty. U.S. Army troops no longer moved with impunity across Indian country,” the artist wrote about this painting in The Art of Tom Lovell: An Invitation to History. “On the Northern Plains, Pawnees and Crows were enlisted by the Army as scouts, as were white frontiersmen who had particular knowledge of the hostile tribes and the country. Here, two scouts have accompanied an officer in advance of the main force. They survey the open terrain in search of enemy movements before showing themselves. The toll of dead soldiers has mounted over the last few months, and a good officer has learned not to underestimate his adversary. Lieutenant John L. Grattan and his entire column of 30 men were wiped out in a fight near Fort Laramie in 1854. Henceforth, the blue-coated columns would proceed with caution in enemy territory.”