The Outlier

1909

In this nocturnal scene, the Native American appears as something of a lone relic, disconnected from his culture and ambiguously detached from a specific historical moment. Depicted in isolation, the figure simultaneously suggests former glory and inevitable demise, a fate that most European Americans at this time considered to be certain for Native Americans.

Frederic Sackrider Remington painted many versions of the solitary Native American—a motif inspired by the lingering psychological impact of his harrowing experience in wartime Cuba as a war correspondent. However, it is the American Impressionist–inspired style, featuring broken brushwork and lightened palette, that dominates the painting’s narrative content.