Chasing Mustang

Horses were as important to nineteenth-century Anglo-American gentlemen as to the Indians at the rendezvous, and in picturing them, Miller documented his experience in the West to the delight of his patrons in the East. Horses were an essential part of nineteenth-century life, to be sure, but they also provided eastern gentlemen with endless opportunities for sporting competition—in breeding, bragging, and racing. Miller surely was aware of these proclivities as well as the debate over whether eastern horses were better than the wild horses of the prairies, and realized that some of his patrons would be interested in paintings on the subject. (Strong, 2008, p. 30)

This oil on canvas version of Indians chasing wild horses suggests that this subject, one of Miller’s most frequent, might have also been popular with his patrons.

Ron Tyler