Lot Essay
An exceptional example of the artist's work in oil, Danger of 1902 was executed during the height of Henry Farny's painting career. Depicting a most threatening and foreboding moment in the life of the Plains Indians, Danger reveals the artist's masterful handling of color, space and atmosphere within a composition in a thoroughly convincing and effective manner.
French by birth, Farny emigrated to Warren, Pennsylvania with his parents and shortly thereafter settled in Cincinnati, Ohio where he spent the remainder of his life. Following the path of earlier Cincinatti artists, Farny travelled to Europe studying first in Düsseldorf and then in Munich. In Düsseldorf, Farny not only acquired the technical skills espoused by the local masters but also made the acquaintance of Albert Bierstadt who encouraged him to travel to the American West. Farny's stay in Munich exposed him to the bravura brushwork and dark, moody palette of Frank Duveneck, the preeminent American artist working in the southern German city at that time. The training Farny received in Europe provided him with the most advanced and sophisticated ideas of the late nineteenth century separating him from many of his contemporaries who chose the West and the Indian as their subject.
After returning from travel and study abroad, Farny made his first trip to the West in 1881, presumably to witness the capture of Sitting Bull. Arriving after the removal of Sitting Bull from Fort Yates along the Missouri River, Farny stayed on and became an active participant in the social life of the Indians who lived near the fort. (D.M. Carter, Henry Farny, New York, 1978, p. 21) Farny returned to the West in 1883 and 1884 in order to witness the final laying of the Northern Pacific Transcontinental Railroad and to illustrate an article for Century Magazine. During these trips and possibly a few more into the early 1890s, Farny gathered materials for the oil paintings and gouaches he would later complete in his Cincinnati studio. Collecting artifacts and props from the Indians he came to know affectionately, Farny recreated, and often repeated, scenes and events he witnessed on the Plains and in the mountains. Aided by on-site sketches and photographs both taken and purchased, Farny had gathered sufficient material and firsthand experience to paint the Indians of the American West in an sympathetic and lasting fashion.
In Danger, Farny presents the viewer with the drama and fear of an Indian group who appears stopped in its tracks by the threat of an encroaching danger. In contrast to many of Farny's contemporaries who employed unnatural effects of light and atmosphere, aggrandized scales of land and space and explosions of action and spirit to create drama and emotion, Farny succeeded in portraying these sentiments with a uncommon subtlety and harmony, ultimately more in keeping with reality. Most obviously, Farny selected a brown and green palette to suggest the impending doom of the Indian group. Borrowed from his Munich days, this muted and almost monochromatic scheme reinforces the idea that the Indians have approached the end of a day and more importantly are faced with the obliteration of their culture and people.
In addition to the symbolic overtones of the palette, the naturalness and realism of Danger is attributed to the compositional devices Farny rountinely used in his major oil paintings. Several of the most effective tools Farny employed were a result of Farny's interest in Japanese art. As Denny Carter writes, "By varying the viewpoint of the composition, cutting off elements at the edge of the painting, and employing assymetrical compositions, Farny used the Japanese motifs to achieve a more realistic representation of the landscape." (Henry Farny, p. 28) Farny learned these avant-garde devices from the Japanese design books he kept in his studio. As early as 1873, Farny recognized and assimilated the unusual aesthetic ideas of Japanese art which gained popularity and admiration among European and American artists of the day.
In Danger, Farny arranges the composition in such an asymmetrical fashion, placing the armed and mounted Indian and a mother and baby wrapped in a local blanket in the center foreground and the other mounted Indian, pack horse and pony to the left of center--leaving the right intentionally empty. Standing on the barren stretch of land marked by clusters of sagebrush, the figures are positioned in such a way as to suggest depth and recession into space. The distance is conveyed by the meeting of three distinct mountain sides which merge in strong diagonals. In describing a similarly composed picture titled New Territory, Carter writes, "For this painting the artist used a horizontal format of the plains and chose a high viewpoint, bringing the horizon line close to the top of the picture. By arranging the sagebrush in roughly horizontal bands he brings depth into the painting. These elements, together with the low ridge in the far distance, create the sense of space extending far beyond the picture plane." (Henry Farny, p. 28)
The combination of a strong horizontal format, a high horizon line, a sharp, diagonal convergence of mountains in the distance and an asymmetrical grouping of figures became something of a formula for Farny once he recognized the balance and strength it could lend his images. Many of Farny's most successful works employ this characteristic composition, including In the Valley of the Shadow (Private collection), The Truce (Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinatti, Ohio) and Indian Encampment (The Gund Collection of Western Art, Cleveland, Ohio). Carter writes, "Even when the balance of Farny's compositions is assymetrical, it is responsible for the quietism and stability of his paintings. This balance expresses both the permanence of the landscape and its dominance over the Indian inhabitants who seem to live in harmony with the landscape." (Henry Farny, p. 28)
Danger exhibits these hallmarks of Farny's highly independent style, revealing the international influences on his approach to painting a wholly national subject. Farny's treatment of the subject of the American Indians won the artist great popularity and acclaim during his lifetime which has continued to grow to this day.
French by birth, Farny emigrated to Warren, Pennsylvania with his parents and shortly thereafter settled in Cincinnati, Ohio where he spent the remainder of his life. Following the path of earlier Cincinatti artists, Farny travelled to Europe studying first in Düsseldorf and then in Munich. In Düsseldorf, Farny not only acquired the technical skills espoused by the local masters but also made the acquaintance of Albert Bierstadt who encouraged him to travel to the American West. Farny's stay in Munich exposed him to the bravura brushwork and dark, moody palette of Frank Duveneck, the preeminent American artist working in the southern German city at that time. The training Farny received in Europe provided him with the most advanced and sophisticated ideas of the late nineteenth century separating him from many of his contemporaries who chose the West and the Indian as their subject.
After returning from travel and study abroad, Farny made his first trip to the West in 1881, presumably to witness the capture of Sitting Bull. Arriving after the removal of Sitting Bull from Fort Yates along the Missouri River, Farny stayed on and became an active participant in the social life of the Indians who lived near the fort. (D.M. Carter, Henry Farny, New York, 1978, p. 21) Farny returned to the West in 1883 and 1884 in order to witness the final laying of the Northern Pacific Transcontinental Railroad and to illustrate an article for Century Magazine. During these trips and possibly a few more into the early 1890s, Farny gathered materials for the oil paintings and gouaches he would later complete in his Cincinnati studio. Collecting artifacts and props from the Indians he came to know affectionately, Farny recreated, and often repeated, scenes and events he witnessed on the Plains and in the mountains. Aided by on-site sketches and photographs both taken and purchased, Farny had gathered sufficient material and firsthand experience to paint the Indians of the American West in an sympathetic and lasting fashion.
In Danger, Farny presents the viewer with the drama and fear of an Indian group who appears stopped in its tracks by the threat of an encroaching danger. In contrast to many of Farny's contemporaries who employed unnatural effects of light and atmosphere, aggrandized scales of land and space and explosions of action and spirit to create drama and emotion, Farny succeeded in portraying these sentiments with a uncommon subtlety and harmony, ultimately more in keeping with reality. Most obviously, Farny selected a brown and green palette to suggest the impending doom of the Indian group. Borrowed from his Munich days, this muted and almost monochromatic scheme reinforces the idea that the Indians have approached the end of a day and more importantly are faced with the obliteration of their culture and people.
In addition to the symbolic overtones of the palette, the naturalness and realism of Danger is attributed to the compositional devices Farny rountinely used in his major oil paintings. Several of the most effective tools Farny employed were a result of Farny's interest in Japanese art. As Denny Carter writes, "By varying the viewpoint of the composition, cutting off elements at the edge of the painting, and employing assymetrical compositions, Farny used the Japanese motifs to achieve a more realistic representation of the landscape." (Henry Farny, p. 28) Farny learned these avant-garde devices from the Japanese design books he kept in his studio. As early as 1873, Farny recognized and assimilated the unusual aesthetic ideas of Japanese art which gained popularity and admiration among European and American artists of the day.
In Danger, Farny arranges the composition in such an asymmetrical fashion, placing the armed and mounted Indian and a mother and baby wrapped in a local blanket in the center foreground and the other mounted Indian, pack horse and pony to the left of center--leaving the right intentionally empty. Standing on the barren stretch of land marked by clusters of sagebrush, the figures are positioned in such a way as to suggest depth and recession into space. The distance is conveyed by the meeting of three distinct mountain sides which merge in strong diagonals. In describing a similarly composed picture titled New Territory, Carter writes, "For this painting the artist used a horizontal format of the plains and chose a high viewpoint, bringing the horizon line close to the top of the picture. By arranging the sagebrush in roughly horizontal bands he brings depth into the painting. These elements, together with the low ridge in the far distance, create the sense of space extending far beyond the picture plane." (Henry Farny, p. 28)
The combination of a strong horizontal format, a high horizon line, a sharp, diagonal convergence of mountains in the distance and an asymmetrical grouping of figures became something of a formula for Farny once he recognized the balance and strength it could lend his images. Many of Farny's most successful works employ this characteristic composition, including In the Valley of the Shadow (Private collection), The Truce (Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinatti, Ohio) and Indian Encampment (The Gund Collection of Western Art, Cleveland, Ohio). Carter writes, "Even when the balance of Farny's compositions is assymetrical, it is responsible for the quietism and stability of his paintings. This balance expresses both the permanence of the landscape and its dominance over the Indian inhabitants who seem to live in harmony with the landscape." (Henry Farny, p. 28)
Danger exhibits these hallmarks of Farny's highly independent style, revealing the international influences on his approach to painting a wholly national subject. Farny's treatment of the subject of the American Indians won the artist great popularity and acclaim during his lifetime which has continued to grow to this day.