The Mourning Brave

Edwin Willard Deming, The Mourning Brave, ca. 1892, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William T. Evans, 1912.9.1
Copied Edwin Willard Deming, The Mourning Brave, ca. 1892, oil on canvas, 4030 in. (101.576.1 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William T. Evans, 1912.9.1
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Artwork Details

Title
The Mourning Brave
Date
ca. 1892
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
4030 in. (101.576.1 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of William T. Evans
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Keywords
  • Figure group
  • Landscape — time — night
  • State of being — emotion — sorrow
  • Indian
  • State of being — death
Object Number
1912.9.1

Artwork Description

Edwin Willard Deming’s paintings romanticized the lives of Native Americans, feeding the myth of a vanishing race of noble savages. In this painting an Indian brave mourns the death of an Indian woman inside a shadowed teepee. With his hands covering his face, he prays over her body, asking the Great Mystery, symbolized by the light that streams from above, to protect her spirit and guide it to the “Happy Western land beyond the Great Waters” (Walsh, ed., Edwin Willard Deming, His Work, 1925).