Study for Treaty with Native Americans (from Sketchbook)

John Quincy Adams Ward

ca. 1860 · Graphite on paper · The American Wing

Ward, a student of Henry Kirke Brown, became known as the “Dean of American Sculpture.” In addition to his monumental bronze "Indian Hunter," installed in New York’s Central Park in 1869, he pursued several other American Indian subjects in the 1860s. This page from a sketchbook ,which provides an intimate look at the artist’s working methods, shows the leader of a group of Indians addressing a quartet of soldiers. This scene may be a historical depiction of the Treaty of Greenville, which took place in Ward’s native Ohio in 1795, when several local tribes ceded land to the U.S. Government and established a boundary between American Indian territory and lands open to Euro-American settlers.

Artist

John Quincy Adams Ward

Date

ca. 1860

Medium

Graphite on paper

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of Edward R. Grove, 1985