Sunday 4 November 2012

Week 6: A Painting of the Native People


This painting is depicted from 1899 whereby the US cavalry are chasing the Native Americans, however the artist for this particular piece is unknown.

There is minimal imagery painted within the painting, nonetheless there is a vast amount of ideas that can be deduced from this image, those that are most obvious derive from it's forefront. What can be seen is the US cavalry or otherwise called 'white' Americans are chasing away the Native Americans from the land; the direction in which they are being chased is onto the west which historically is where the indigenous people kept on being forced towards; beyond the Mississippi River.

In comparison of the two sides, the Native Americans are painted with minimal clothing and riding bare back. This can been seen as them being less evolved in terms of manufacturing equipment and clothing or they are simply more naturalistic in the way they live. Similarly is the type of weapons that can be seen, the Natives hold man-made weapons whereas the US cavalry hold welded guns. 

Looking deeper into the painting the backdrop in which the artist has used reinforces the idea of open land, untouched thus it is there for the taking especially amongst the open plains situated in the mid-west of America, by which this was an ideology of the US government as well as many white American settlers.

In all this painting is a wonderful representation of the 19th Century and the historical relevance it has to show the disharmony over land between these two separate colonists.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cavalry_and_Indians.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Cavalry_(branch)

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