PLUNDER ON THE HORIZON (INDIANS DISCOVER PROSPECTORS) BY CHARLES M. RUSSELL
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Charles M. Russell Plunder on the Horizon (Indians Discover Prospectors) 1893 Gouache on paper 24 inches x 36 inches |
| In Plunder on the Horizon, a companion piece to Trouble on the Horizon, Indians emerge from a tangle of trees to spy on three prospectors panning for gold in the stream below. They are clearly calculating the odds and planning a surprise attack on the unwary prospectors, who are about to relax over a meal. At the time he painted this piece, Russell had not yet fully developed the empathy for the natives that he acquired later. Here he depicts the American Indians as pure products of the wilderness from which they are emerging to spy on the men below. Soon after Russell quit cowboying on the range and settled down, Indians almost always appeared in his art in a sympathetic light, restored to their pre-reservation vigor, free-roaming and proud. |