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The End of the Trail

A work made of bronze.

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  • A work made of bronze.

Date:

1918

Artist:

James Earle Fraser (American, 1876–1953)
Cast by Gorham Co. Founders

About this artwork

The End of the Trail, James Earle Fraser’s best-known sculpture, has come to symbolize the genocide of Native American peoples amid relentless westward expansion. In 1894, the year after the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the 17-year-old Fraser, then a student at the School of the Art Institute, produced the first version of this bronze sculpture. (The Art Institute’s sculpture is a later model and cast.) Reenforcing the conception of the so-called vanishing Indian, the work portrays an exhausted Sioux drooping over his equally weary pony; both rider and horse have reached the end of the trail.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Arts of the Americas

Artist

James Earle Fraser

Title

The End of the Trail

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1918

Medium

Bronze

Inscriptions

Signed and inscribed recto, right, on base, cast: "© FRASER 1918". Inscribed verso, left, on base, cast: "G [figure of a shewolf] C / GORHAM CO. FOUNDERS".

Dimensions

H.: 111.8 cm (44 in.)

Credit Line

Bequest of Arthur Rubloff Trust

Reference Number

1991.325

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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