The Advance-Guard, or The Military Sacrifice (The Ambush)
Frederic Remington (American, 1861–1909)
1890
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 87.3 × 123.1 cm (34 3/8 × 48 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- New York
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas
- Credit line
- George F. Harding Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Adult profiles and older: its museum's description or title mentions violence, death or gore. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Frederic Remington crafted this scene of bloody confrontation for white audiences east of the Mississippi River, who imagined the West as a place of both danger and opportunity. An unseen Sioux warrior has shot a cavalry scout, who slumps over his horse while the troops behind him flee the ambush. A sculptor and illustrator as well as a painter, Remington was famous for his dynamic compositions of frontier life, which presented mythologized views of encounters between Native and settler-colonial communities in tantalizing color and detail. Although he traveled to western locations to sketch or gather material on assignment, he executed most of his work in his New York studio, including The Advance-Guard, which was later reproduced in Harper’s Weekly alongside an article by the artist.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
