John Quincy Adams Ward

(American, 1830-1910)

The Indian Hunter, 1860

Bronze, dark brown patina, 16 1⁄8 H. x 15 1⁄8 W. x 9 3⁄4 D. inches

Signed on base: JQA. WARD / 1860

Inscribed on base: CAST BY THE HENRY BONNARD BRONZE CO. / NEW YORK 1894

Provenance:

The artist

Mrs. John Quincy Adams Ward (nee Rachel Smith)

Allen Newman and thence by descent

Exhibited:

Olympic Fine Arts Exhibition, Summer Olympics 1928, Amsterdam, Netherlands loaned by Mrs. John Quincy Adams Ward (published Catalogue du Concours et de l'Exposition d’Art Olympique, no. 213, pp. 19)

The model of The Indian Hunter, 1860 was shown at the Paris Exposition in 1867, two years before the monumental version was dedicated in New York’s Central Park in 1869, where it remains in place near the Sheep’s Meadow.  It was also exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, the Washington Art Association and the National Academy of Design. The sculpture was very well received and marks a pivotal moment in the history of American sculpture, its turn from neoclassical tenets to unbridled naturalism. A lithe, young Native American leans forward in a stealthy stride, eyes focused on his prey. He restrains an eager, wolfish-looking dog with his right hand while grasping a bow and arrow in his left. In this model, Ward was responding to a larger call in the 1850’s and 1860’s for American subjects by American artists.

Sixteen castings of the statuette are known to have been made, including this cast, fourteen of which are in museum collections. The present cast was the artist’s own and was executed at the Henry Bonnard Foundry, New York in 1894. After Ward’s death, his widow loaned the bronze to the 1928 Summer Olympic Games in Amsterdam. The label for the exhibition remains underneath the sculpture, naming Mrs. John Quincy Adams Ward as the lender to the exhibition.

From 1912 to 1948, the Olympic Games included an art competition held in conjunction with the athletic games. Though the competitive portion was discontinued, the fostering of art and artists continues through the Cultural Olympiad. This festival, held simultaneously with the Olympic Games, celebrates art and culture through thousands of free multidisciplinary, artistic events held throughout the host country. Additionally, in the most recent 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, the Olympian Artists Program showed 37 artworks by 7 Olympic athletes who had competed in previous iterations of the Games. 

References:

Catalogue du Concours et de l'Exposition d’Art Olympique (Catalogue of the Olympic Fine Arts Exhibition) Municipal Museum of Amsterdam, 1928, no. 213, pp. 19

American Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Volume I. A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born Before 1865. Thayer Tolles, ed., The Metropolitan Museum, 1999, pp. 136-39; illustrated.

The American West in Bronze. Thayer Tolles and Thomas Brent Smith, eds., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013, cat. no. 75, pp. 29, illustrated.

GRAHAM SHAY 1857

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