Indians Lamenting the Approach of the White Man (from McGuire Scrapbook)

Frederick Stiles Agate

ca. 1830 · Pen and black ink, gray washes, and graphite on off-white wove paper · The American Wing

The son of English immigrants, Agate was a student of Samuel F. B. Morse and a founding member of the National Academy of Design. In this drawing, one of only a few by the artist that survives, four Indians cluster together in attitudes of despair and resignation. Agate studied and worked in Italy in the mid-1830s, and the influence of classical sculpture is evident in the poses and draperies as well as the pyramidal composition. This drawing may have been a study for a painting. It shares a dramatic sensibility with Agate’s other works of the 1830s, including "Jesuit Missionaries among the Indians" and a scene from Dante’s Inferno titled "Count Ugolino" (both whereabouts unknown).

Artist

Frederick Stiles Agate

Date

ca. 1830

Medium

Pen and black ink, gray washes, and graphite on off-white wove paper

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of James C. McGuire, 1926