The Indian Guide

This watercolor is quite close in style and almost identical in composition to the watercolors Miller painted for Sir William Drummond Stewart (CR# 85A) and William T. Walters (CR# 85B). Although stylistically this sketch is closer to the Walters version, it may be that Miller made it prior to his departure from Murthly in 1842, so that he had a record of the composition that he could reproduce for Baltimore patrons.

Miller here seems to have struggled with the landscape setting. Gone are the trees which shrouded the figures and created a more intimate setting in the Stewart version. Miller has replaced them with what appears to be a distant mountain. However, Miller leaves unresolved the passage where the grass embankment on which the figures stand meets the mountain. As a result, their spatial relationships and the overall depth of the represented space are unclear. His juxtaposition of the embankment, the mountainside, and the distant caravan also works to create the illusion that the caravan is much closer in this sketch than in the other two. Miller left further evidence of changes in the placement of the mule’s head, as well as some rocks at the lower left.

Lisa Strong