Only about ten percent of the two hundred watercolors Miller completed for William Walters pictured his first major patron, William Drummond Stewart. This scene was sufficiently special to deserve making an exception. Stewart was an inveterate adventurer and hunter, and this dramatic portrayal of him bowing in concentration toward the object of his recent chase is a telling memento of an especially proud moment. The animated butcher in silhouette over the bison carcass, and the rearing horse on the left appear in contrast to the calm, almost reverential demeanor of Stewart and his horse. Stewart, as was the artist’s as well as the patron’s want, is spotlighted by a break in the clouds.
