Aaron Anderson
Specialist, Head of Sale
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, DELAWARE
Lot 46
Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait(1819-1905)The Last Shot 26 1/8 x 36 1/8 in. (66.4 x 91.8 cm.)
30 April 2025, 14:00 EDT
New YorkUS$70,000 - US$100,000
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Morgan Martin
Head of Department
Mary Manfredi
Cataloguer & Sale Coordinator
Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait (1819-1905)
The Last Shot
oil on canvas
26 1/8 x 36 1/8 in. (66.4 x 91.8 cm.)
Painted circa 1852-64.
oil on canvas
26 1/8 x 36 1/8 in. (66.4 x 91.8 cm.)
Painted circa 1852-64.
Footnotes
Provenance
John Clement Myers (1878-1952), Ashland, Ohio.
Ashland College, Ashland, Ohio.
Sale, Gray's Auctioneers, LLC, Cleveland, April 13, 2022, lot 8.
Private collection, acquired at the above sale.
Acquired by the present owner from the above.
Exhibited
New York, Near East Foundation, April 1952.
Literature
"Near East Group Stages Art Show: Paintings Depicting Pioneer Far West to Raise Funds for Self-Help Program," New York Times, April 16, 1952, vol. CI, no. 34,416, p. 25.
The Last Shot dramatically illustrates the violence and danger of westward expansion in nineteenth century America. In 1852, Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait collaborated with Louis Maurer (1832-1932), a German-American lithographer, on a series of western scenes that conveyed the action and drama of the wild west. Maurer delineated Tait's canvases which were later mass-produced as lithographs by Currier & Ives. In the present work, horses in the distance gallop furiously away. The focal point of the composition is centered on two men and their respective steeds. The fallen man in the foreground, who likely tumbled off his horse when it was struck by an enemies' arrow, reaches for his musket while firing off the clutched pistol. The bullet lodges into the chest of the Native American warrior who motions his hatchet up to the sky in furry. The emotions are palpable in the scene but further allude and communicate to viewers the tensions ever-present in the wild west.