About This Artwork
Hermon Atkins MacNeil
American, 1866-1947
The Moqui Runner (The Moqui Prayer for Rain—The Returning of the Snakes)Modeled 1896, cast c. 1897
Bronze
H. 57.2 cm (22 1/2 in.)
Signed on side of base: "H. A. MAC NEIL. Sc.Fond.Nelli.ROMA"
Inscribed around side of base, front: "THE RETURNING OF THE SNAKES"
Inscribed under center of the figure, on base: "THE MOQUI / PRAYER.FOR.RAIN"
Gift of Edward E. Ayer, 1924.1350
Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories
Exhibition History
Paris, International Exposition, 1900, as danse des serpants
Art Institute of Chicago, Window on the West: Chicago and the Art of the New Frontier 1890-1940, June 28–Oct. 13, 2003, cat. 56, pp. 25–27, 29-30, 41.
Publication History
Erwin Millard Breithaupt, Jr., “The Life and Works of Hermon Atkins MacNeil” (master’s thesis, Ohio State University, 1947), p. 51.
Ownership History
The artist to his uncle, Edward E. Ayer, Chicago, by 1924; given to the Art Institute, 1924.