Last of the Buffalo

Artist William Herbert Dunton (American, 1878 - 1936)

Datec. 1920

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensions16 × 20 1/4 inches (40.6 × 51.4 cm)
Frame: 26 1/2 × 30 1/4 × 2 1/4 inches (67.3 × 76.8 × 5.7 cm)

Credit LineBequest of H.J. Lutcher Stark, 1965

Object number31.21.223

ClassificationsPaintings

Label TextThe title of Dunton’s painting, Last of the Buffalo, evokes the theme of the vanishing of the bison. Dunton shared those concerns in a manuscript essay, “The Buffalo.” “The buffalo were practically exterminated before I ever came into this world.” Yet, his painting does not appear “tragic and depressing,” as he wrote about the animal. The buffalo stand peacefully in a verdant mountain landscape with fluffy clouds and a bright blue sky. Dunton’s painting seems to imagine a place where the buffalo can exist. Connect with Robert von Sternberg’s Bison, Hood River, Oregon and Karl Bodmer’s Ptihn-Tak-Ochatä, Dance of the Mandan Women.

ProvenanceH.J. Lutcher Stark [1887-1965]; bequeathed September 2, 1965 to Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation; accessioned to the Stark Museum of Art

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