Shoshone Caressing His Horse

Perhaps a sketch made in preparation for the more finished Walters commission and subsequent copies, Shoshone Caressing His Horse gave Miller the opportunity to document the universal relationship between people and animals, an important aspect of romanticism. Perhaps Miller even had in mind some specific works of Eugène Delacroix, the French artist who accompanied the young diplomat, Compte de Mornay, to Morocco and Algiers in the early 1830s. Miller had sketched from Delacroix’s famous Barque de Dante in Luxembourg in 1833, might well have seen some of his north African work. He surely thought of the similarities between his expedition with Stewart and Delacroix’s with Mornay.

Here Miller depicts a tender moment between the man and his horse while members of his family go about their work of making bows and arrows in the background. The flap of their large teepee stands open to “admit the sun and give it an airing.” Miller shows in the painting, and confirmed in his caption, that the man and horse “are friends of old, perfectly well acquainted with each other’s frailties, and make all reasonable allowances.” (Clark, 1982, 49 – 50; Ross, 1968, text accompanying plate 62)

Ron Tyler