Lot Essay
The Sun Dance was a ceremony confined to the Plains tribes, among whom it was wide-spread. The ceremony varied greatly in regard to details, and even in some basic features, but in general it could be regarded as a summer solstice festival whose fundamental object seems to have been the overcoming of certain cosmic elements through the endurance of excruciating, physical pain. In some tribes, the ceremony was an annual event; in others its occurrence was dependent upon vows to hold a dance made by an individual. In some tribes the participants were selected and compelled to perform by the priests; in others, participation was voluntary. In most cases, it was a rite of passage for young men.
A feature of the dance, one which received perhaps undue prominence from white spectators, was voluntary self-laceration or torture. One form, as depicted here, was to pass skewers through the flesh and muscle of the breast or back. A rope was then attached to the skewers, and the free end of the rope to the top of the lodge pole. The participant then strained against the rope until the skewers pulled free. This representation of a Sun Dance ceremony shows a participant in the dance, holding in one hand a whistle made from the wing bone of an eagle, in the other a medicine bag made from the skin of an animal.
This painting is the earliest representation Remington made of the Sun Dance. He illustrated an article on the Sun Dance for Century Magazine in March 1890; another illustration of a Sun Dance appeared in Harper's Weekly December 13, 1890. The Sun Dance made a lasting impression on Remington: He painted another version of it towards the end of his life which is now in the Remington Memorial, Ogdensburg, New York.
Lincoln Ellsworth (1880-1951) was a writer, adventurer and an important polar explorer during the 1920s. He was the author of The Last Wild Buffalo Hunt (1915) and collaborated with Roald Amundsen on Our Polar Flight (1925) and First Crossing of the Polar Sea (1927).
This work is scheduled for inclusion in the Buffalo Bill Historical Center's forthcoming catalogue raisonn/ae of the artist's flat works.
A feature of the dance, one which received perhaps undue prominence from white spectators, was voluntary self-laceration or torture. One form, as depicted here, was to pass skewers through the flesh and muscle of the breast or back. A rope was then attached to the skewers, and the free end of the rope to the top of the lodge pole. The participant then strained against the rope until the skewers pulled free. This representation of a Sun Dance ceremony shows a participant in the dance, holding in one hand a whistle made from the wing bone of an eagle, in the other a medicine bag made from the skin of an animal.
This painting is the earliest representation Remington made of the Sun Dance. He illustrated an article on the Sun Dance for Century Magazine in March 1890; another illustration of a Sun Dance appeared in Harper's Weekly December 13, 1890. The Sun Dance made a lasting impression on Remington: He painted another version of it towards the end of his life which is now in the Remington Memorial, Ogdensburg, New York.
Lincoln Ellsworth (1880-1951) was a writer, adventurer and an important polar explorer during the 1920s. He was the author of The Last Wild Buffalo Hunt (1915) and collaborated with Roald Amundsen on Our Polar Flight (1925) and First Crossing of the Polar Sea (1927).
This work is scheduled for inclusion in the Buffalo Bill Historical Center's forthcoming catalogue raisonn/ae of the artist's flat works.