Killing the Buffalo with the Lance

In one of Miller’s large oils created for the walls of Murthly Castle, Hunting the Buffalo (also known as The Surround, CR# 353), there are two mounted hunters engaged in spearing a buffalo. They command the foreground of the composition. That three-part figural study became the primary subject for this and at least two other later works. Given the spectacular physiological display portrayed particularly by the white horse on the right, it is little wonder that critics proclaimed effusively about how effective the artist was in the rendering of horseflesh. Miller had seen the works of Eugene Delacroix and Theodore Gericault in Paris as a young student. The pose of his white horse reveals that Miller learned much from them about the anatomical and melodramatic presentation of horses.

Peter H. Hassrick