Nomads

Additional Information

Exhibitions:
Whitney Gallery of Western Art, Cody, WY, 1983

In a letter dated May 3, 1902 (a letter that accompanies this lot) Henry Farny writes to Nomads’ first owner with warmth and appreciation: “I have this day shipped by express the picture Nomads to your address and trust the same will arrive in good shape and be satisfactory—personally it pleases me—as one of the most sincere things I have perpetrated in this vale of tears. But pictures are essentially ‘affaires de gout’—one man likes a color scheme, another wants a crass recitative of facts. I had Loring Andrews and one or two other people of good taste see it—and their comments were of a most agreeable nature to the self esteem of the painter. Your uncle Lars came to see it almost daily whilst it was under way. I hope some day when you are in Washington to bring President Roosevelt and Gen. Miles (not on the same day) to see it as they are both fond of my western pictures—and this one is very much the character of the country where the President had his ranch—I shall send him a photograph of it.”

Farny ends the letter with the lightest of sales pitches: “Should you decide not to take the picture please advise me at once—should it on the (other) hand please you—the price is $1,500.00.”

By 1902, Farny was deep into his art career, having garnered respect from collectors, artists and, as evidenced by his Nomads letter, presidents and military figures with whom he shared a love for the people and stories of the frontier. But Farny largely missed the version of the West that George Catlin and Karl Bodmer had seen decades earlier. When Farny took his first trip West to the Missouri River, in an area that would become North Dakota, and to the nearby Standing Rock Agency, he found that Native Americans were limited in almost every conceivable way of life—in movement, in land, and even in food, which was controlled by “government ration house.” This first trip was in 1881 and it came to define his experience with Indigenous people still barely a generation removed from the freedoms they had before confined to reservations. “The golden West isn’t what it used to be,” Farny lamented.

These early experiences are reflected in many of Farny’s work, including Nomads, which hints at the beauty of its subjects and their lands, and yet also depicts the difficult road ahead for them in the 20th century. For Farny’s subjects, there were no easy paths forward. “By the time he observed Native Americans, the majority of them were living on reservations, that is, public lands set aside by the federal government for enforced Indian occupation,” writes Julie Schimmel in Henry Farny Paints the Far West. “It is this historical context that trumps all previous discussions of Farny’s work as simply realistic. Much more routinely and obviously, a significant portion of Farny’s work evokes a sense of isolation and stasis, qualities that indirectly suggest, but do not literally portray, the dislocation of Plains Indians to lands they had not chosen for themselves.”

Showing an unidentified family traveling through a snowy field—a mother carrying a child, dogs marching alongside horses, a travois carrying meager belongings—Nomads speaks to the roving culture of the Plains People, and also hints at their plight as they march forward without a home. The bottom quarter of the painting is almost all limbs and sticks cutting clean silhouettes though fresh snow, while a gloomy sky fills the top half of the image; a line of bare trees cuts through the middle. The silence and the coldness of the scene vibrates from the canvas, creating a remarkably realistic image that calls out to Farny’s feelings about the West and its Native inhabitants.

CONTACT US

Email: info@scottsdaleartauction.com
Phone: (480) 945-0225

DISCLAIMER

Please note that the first unframed photo is most accurate for color. Framed photographs are to show the frame and are not color corrected to the painting.

*The Condition Reports are for guidance only and should not be relied upon as statements of fact, and do not constitute a representation, warranty, or assumption of liability by Scottsdale Art Auction. Scottsdale Art Auction strongly encourages in-person inspection of items by the bidder. All lots offered are sold “AS IS”. Please refer to item two in our terms and conditions for further information.