Buffalo Hunting

Artist Alfred Jacob Miller (American, 1810 - 1874)

Datec. 1837

Mediumwatercolor with pen and ink on paper

Dimensions8 3/8 x 13 3/8 inches (21.3 x 34 cm)
Frame: 15 1/4 × 20 1/8 × 1 1/8 inches (38.7 × 51.1 × 2.9 cm)

Credit LineBequest of H.J. Lutcher Stark, 1965

Object number31.34.36

ClassificationsPaintings

DescriptionEarliest version of this subject.

Label TextMiller painted many scenes of Native Americans hunting buffalo. In this work, he represented a method of securing food for a season. Hunters drove buffalo over a cliff. Scholars think it is very unlikely that Miller witnessed a buffalo drive, or buffalo jump. He probably heard stories about the method and wanted to portray the drama of the drive. Miller depicted the hunters on horseback. This type of hunt, however, originated before there were horses in North America. Hunters on foot needed an advantage to deal with the powerful buffalo herds. They used the landscape to direct the buffalo.

ProvenanceArtist; Lloyd O. Miller [1]; (Edward Eberstadt & Sons, New York, New York)[2]; purchased February 10, 1958 by H.J. Lutcher Stark [1887-1965]; bequeathed September 2, 1965 to the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation; accessioned to the Stark Museum of Art | 1. Reynolds, Karen Dewees. Alfred Jacob Miller: Artist on the Oregon Trail. Fort Worth, TX: Amon Carter Museum, 1982. Includes Catalogue Raisonne by Karen Dewees Reynolds & William R. Johnston. p. 310 no. 351 | 2. “We have been some ten or a dozen years amassing the rest of this collection from various individuals who were direct descendents[sic] of the pioneer artist himself.” (excerpt from a letter to HJLS from Charles Eberstadt dated November 26, 1957)

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