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126

Cary, William de la Montagne (1840 - 192

Currency:USD Category:Art Start Price:20,000.00 USD Estimated At:20,000.00 - 30,000.00 USD
Cary, William de la Montagne (1840 - 192
<strong>Cary, William de la Montagne </strong>
(1840 - 1922)

<strong>The High Toss</strong>

ink and ink wash on paper
15 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches (sight)
signed lower right: <i>W. de-la-Montaigne Cary</i>

A hard-cover copy of Mildred Ladner’s <i>William de la Montagne Cary</i> will accompany the sale of this work.

By 1861, when he made his first trip up the Missouri River, New York native William de la
Montagne Cary had already been working as an illustrator for popular magazines for several years. Traveling via steamboat, Cary spent six weeks at Fort Union on the border of the Dakota and Montana Territories, where he sketched and painted the Assiniboin Indians who populated the region. He had no shortage of adventure during his nine-month journey, and his escapades included narrowly avoiding capture by Crow Indians, getting knocked over by a charging
buffalo, and barely escaping the destruction of the steamboat and loosing 80 sketches in the
accidental explosion of 300 kegs of gunpowder stored in the bow. Joining up with a survey crew, Cary made his way to the West Coast and returned to New York by boat from San Francisco via the isthmus of Panama.

By the time of his second trip to the West in 1874, Cary’s reputation as an illustrator was well
established and he freelanced for the most popular magazines of the day, <i>Harper’s Weekly, Scribner’s,</i> and <i>Leslie’s Weekly.</i> A commission from <i>Harper’s</i> took him back up the Missouri to the familiar territory of the northern plains that he had visited thirteen years earlier.
While with the Northern Boundary Survey for ten weeks, he sketched and wrote journal notes to record his observations.

In his later years, in New York City, Cary focused his talents on documentary oil paintings of the
early West, verifying details not only through his notes and field sketches but also by contacting old friends. Cary saw the West before it was changed by the railways and wagon trains, and during the course of his travels he met a who’s-who of notable personalities, including George Armstrong Custer, Buffalo Bill Cody, Theodore Roosevelt, and Sitting Bull. Cary died in 1922 and
in 1941, the Cary family sold the remainder of the collection to Thomas Gilcrease. Included were
some 65 paintings and three boxes of sketches. In addition to the Gilcrease Museum, among the
museums that house Cary’s work are Joslyn Museum, Omaha, Nebraska; National Museum of
Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center; Rockwell Museum of Western Art, Corning, New York; Amon Carter Museum, Ft. Worth, Texas; University of Nebraska, Lincoln; and the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming.

Cary was influenced by the work of Karl Bodmer and George Catlin, whose works had been widely
published. Cary’s work inspired younger illustrators in that his published work was used as
reference material for their paintings of the West. For example, Frederic Remington made two
paintings and a bronze more or less based on the same subject of Cary’s drawing of <i>The High Toss,</i> the major difference being that Remington’s subject depicts the Indian being thrown over after the buffalo charges the Indian’s horse. Cary’s original oil painting of his drawing is entitled <i>Buffalo Charging Hunter,</i> 15 3/4 x 23 5/8 inches, in the collection of the Gilcrease Museum,
Tulsa, Oklahoma.—GH



and wagon trains, and during the course of his travels and through his contacts
in the worlds of journalism and art, he met a who’s-who of notable
personalities, including George Armstrong Custer, Buffalo Bill Cody, Theodore
Roosevelt, and Sitting Bull. Cary death in 1922 and in 1941, the Cary family
sold the remainder of the collection to Thomas Gilcrease. Included were some 65
paintings and three boxes of sketches. In addition to the Gilcrease Museum,
among the museums that house Cary’s work are Joslyn Museum, Omaha, Nebraska;
National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming; Colorado Springs Fine Arts
Center; Rockwell Museum of Western Art, Corning, New York; Amon Carter Museum,
Ft. Worth, Texas; University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Buffalo Bill Historical
Center; Cody Wyoming.

Cary was influenced by the work of Karl Bodmer and George Catlin, whose works
had been widely published. Likewise, Cary’s work inspired that of younger
illustrators in that his published work was used as reference material for
their paintings of the West. For example, Frederic Remington made two paintings
and a bronze more-or-less based on the same subject of Cary’s drawing of “The
High Toss,” the major difference being that Remington’s subject depicts the
Indian being thrown over after the buffalo charges the Indian’s horse. Cary’s
original oil painting of his drawing is entitled "Buffalo Charging Hunter," 15
3/4 x 23 5/8 inches, in the collection of the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa,
Oklahoma. GH


Provenance:
Private Collection, Texas
Private Collection, Florida
Private Collection, Colorado

Literature:
Mildred D. Radner, <i>William de la Montagne Cary: Artist on the Missouri River,</i>
Norman, Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma Press, 1984, p. 54
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