Auguste Watering Stewart’s Horse

Miller did a series of paintings featuring Auguste, a half-breed French Canadian member of the caravan, including an oil portrait (CR# 53, unlocated) that Stewart hung in the lodge where he lived after he returned to Murthly. Auguste is shown in this study watering his horse. Miller reported that he “was one amongst the best of all our mountain men, with a lithe and active form, exuberant spirits, quick perception—especially of the ridiculous,–and brave to recklessness; he was the life of the Camp, from his excessive drollery and bon homie” (Tyler, 1982, p. 42; Ross, 1968, 10).

Auguste stands by as the horse stretches to reach the water in this cozy and intimate sketch. Miller has included trees and shrubs around the water and mountains in the background.  

Ron Tyler