Spotlight on Juley

The Peter A. Juley & Son Collection is a photo archive that documents the work of 11,000 American artists.

This Juley photograph depicts artist George de Forest Brush. Brush received some preliminary instruction in art from his mother, an amateur painter, before enrolling in the National Academy of Design at the age of sixteen. In 1879, he traveled with his brother to Wyoming and sketched Indians. His first success in painting was with Indian subjects, though he later became famous for paintings with a mother and child theme.

Shown below, Brush's painting The Moose Chase probably depicts the Indians of the Canadian Great Lakes area where, shortly after his western trip, Brush spent his honeymoon.

Source: Nancy Dustin Wall Moure. American Narrative Painting (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1974).

Pictured top: Photograph of George de Forest Brush, 1855–1941. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Peter A. Juley & Son Collection.

Pictured bottom: George de Forest Brush, 1855–1941, The Moose Chase, 1888, oil, 37 5/8 x 57 3/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William T. Evans.