The stylistic similarity of this sketch to the untitled sketch from the Stewart album now at the Beinecke (CR# 60A) suggests that Miller executed the two watercolors during the same time period. Both watercolors share the delicate pen and ink drawing (particularly in the rendering of the horses and the lightly sketched wagons in the distance) that is characteristic of Miller’s early style.
Although the long line of wagons and figures is nearly the same in each work, here Miller seems to have been experimenting with the landscape setting by placing the caravan against distant mountains, rather than near a wooded river bank. The open vista provides a more dramatic foil to the caravan, which seems to spread out to fill the wide expanse. At the right, Miller tried sketching in what may have been a foreground bluff or promontory, similar to the one he used as a vantage point for his figures in Indian Procession Headed by Chief Ma-Wo-Ma (CR# 178).
The artist; The Porter Collection; Mae Reed Porter, Kansas City, MO; [M. Knoedler and Company, New York, NY]; InterNorth Art Foundation, Omaha, NE; present owner
