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PROPERTY FROM A MID-WESTERN FAMILY
Lot 49
Henry F. Farny(1847-1916)Cheyenne Scout 10 x 16 1/4in
24 May 2017, 10:00 EDT
New YorkSold
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Henry F. Farny (1847-1916)
Cheyenne Scout
signed and dated '·Farny· / 95·' (lower right)
watercolor and gouache on paper
10 x 16 1/4in
signed and dated '·Farny· / 95·' (lower right)
watercolor and gouache on paper
10 x 16 1/4in
Footnotes
Provenance
Traxel Art Galleries, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Mr. Joseph Spencer Graydon, of Cobble Court at Indian Hill, Cincinnati, Ohio, acquired from the above.
By descent to the present owner from the above.
The European born artist, named at birth Françoise Henri Farny, immigrated to America with his family in 1853. A year after they landed in New York, the Farny's purchased land in western Pennsylvania and established the Farny Sawmill on Tionesta Creek. The family's eventual assimilation to America came finally in 1859 when they settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, with relief to be leaving the Pennsylvania backwoods. After the death of his brother and later his father in 1863, now a teenager, Farny began a number of jobs, including positions as a bookkeeper, a decorator of watercolors and a lithographer for Gibson & Co. Shortly thereafter Farny began doing illustrations for Harper's Weekly and was first published in the magazine in 1865.
His relationship with the Harper brothers carried him for the next couple of decades. Employed first as an engraver and cartoonist, he developed his skills as a draftsman, experimenting with varied subject matter and supporting himself financially with illustration work until the early 1880s. These years were alternately filled with trips to Europe for artistic training under various masters. In 1881, the artist first traveled west and from that point forward Indian subjects consumed the artist's body of work until the end of his career.
The present work, Cheyenne Scout, dated a decade later, in 1895, was executed during an incredibly inspired period for the artist. From 1893 until 1912 he produced his largest body of paintings in gouache and oil. Setting aside his previous occupation illustrating varied historical subject matter, the artist focused exclusively on his Indian paintings. In October of 1894, the artist made his last trip west to Indian Territory. After this trip, the artist produced works exclusively from his studio, settling permanently back in Cincinnati, working from the photographs and drawings he produced while on tour, fondly incorporating the many artifacts and props he'd acquired on his voyages west.
Farny's most successful Indian paintings follow a compositional formula and the present work is one among his quintessential portrait subjects. Cheyenne Scout, executed with exactitude and fine surface detail, illustrates nude plains of earth in the foreground, which lead to sprouting patches of green brush. In the distance, buttes of pastel rock interrupt the skyline. The landscape's soft palette of pastel colored hues mimic the work of the Impressionists and the affectionate handling of the landscape show a similar likeness to the romantic, grandiose paintings of the formative Hudson River School painters. This naturalistic landscape frames a regal Indian chief and his horse. This intimate portrait, while skillfully rendered with precise detail, presents a figure of considerable distinction, an emblem of the waning indigenous population of the American west.
When examining Farny's work alongside some his more famous contemporaries, colleagues such as Frederic Remington (1861-1909) and Charles Marion Russell (1864-1926), his contributions to preserving an accurate, visual record of the American west endure him as an important historical painter. Farny's works were highly desirable and widely collected by private individuals during his lifetime. After his death a majority of his pictures remained in private collections in Cincinnati, the present work is no exception, having remained with the same family since the first half of the twentieth century.