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The Advance-Guard, or The Military Sacrifice (The Ambush)

Three cavalry scouts—light-skinned men mounted on gleaming brown horses—among light-beige, arid mountains. The figure in the foreground has begun to to slump and seems poised to fall, his rifle on the ground, his horse agitated and alarmed. The others ride off in pursuit.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • Three cavalry scouts—light-skinned men mounted on gleaming brown horses—among light-beige, arid mountains. The figure in the foreground has begun to to slump and seems poised to fall, his rifle on the ground, his horse agitated and alarmed. The others ride off in pursuit.

Date:

1890

Artist:

Frederic Remington (American, 1861–1909)

About this artwork

Frederic Remington crafted this scene of bloody confrontation for white audiences east of the Mississippi River, who imagined the West as a place of both danger and opportunity. An unseen Sioux warrior has shot a cavalry scout, who slumps over his horse while the troops behind him flee the ambush. A sculptor and illustrator as well as a painter, Remington was famous for his dynamic compositions of frontier life, which presented mythologized views of encounters between Native and settler-colonial communities in tantalizing color and detail. Although he traveled to western locations to sketch or gather material on assignment, he executed most of his work in his New York studio, including The Advance-Guard, which was later reproduced in Harper’s Weekly alongside an article by the artist.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Arts of the Americas

Artist

Frederic Remington

Title

The Advance-Guard, or The Military Sacrifice (The Ambush)

Place

New York (Place depicted)

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.

1890

Medium

Oil on canvas

Inscriptions

Signed, lower left: "Frederic Remington/1890"

Dimensions

87.3 × 123.1 cm (34 3/8 × 48 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

George F. Harding Collection

Reference Number

1982.802

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/97910/manifest.json

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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