Racing–near Wind River Mountain

Horse racing was the signature game of the mountain man rendezvous. Miller painted two views of the amusement for the portfolio of drawings that was shipped to Scotland for Stewart’s library, this one and another similar view (CR# 181). In this version the artist poses Stewart and Antoine in the right foreground. Between the racers and those two observers is a chief adorned with a full eagle feather bonnet and mounted on a rearing horse. Both Miller’s patron and the chief represent noble personages paying witness to an age old, traditionally noble sport. The trees on either side of the composition contain the drama as if being presented on nature’s most magnificent stage, while the distant Wind River Mountains crown the scene with their grand sunlit facades.

Peter H. Hassrick

Horse racing was the signature game of the mountain man rendezvous. Miller painted two views of the amusement for the portfolio of drawings that was shipped to Scotland for Stewart’s library, this one and another similar view (CR# 181). In this version the artist poses Stewart and Antoine in the right foreground. Between the racers and those two observers is a chief adorned with a full eagle feather bonnet and mounted on a rearing horse. Both Miller’s patron and the chief represent noble personages paying witness to an age old, traditionally noble sport. The trees on either side of the composition contain the drama as if being presented on nature’s most magnificent stage, while the distant Wind River Mountains crown the scene with their grand sunlit facades.

Peter H. Hassrick