Sculptor James Earle Fraser (1876-1953) was born in Winona, Minnesota. Even as a boy, he was moved by the plight of Native Americans who were being pushed further West or confined to reservations. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, followed by studies in Paris, at the École des Beaux Arts and the Académie Julian.
Shown above, a pair of cast iron bookends based on Fraser's famous sculpture, The End of the Trail. His first model was made in 1894, while Fraser was still a teenager. He made several copies, in varying sizes, including one which was displayed at the San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915. The exhibition helped make the sculpture very famous.
Fraser intended the work to be a statement of sympathy for the Native Americans, whom, he believed, had suffered greatly at the hands of European-Americans. An exhausted Indian sits astride his exhausted horse, pushed to the edge of oblivion. Some have criticized the sculpture, interpreting the artist's bleak portrayal as a statement of a dead Native culture. But those who have studied the artist know his intention was genuine.
In 1911, Fraser was commissioned to design the U.S. Indian Head (Buffalo) Nickel which was minted from 1913 to 1938.
The cast iron bookends, shown above, are modeled after Fraser's famous sculpture. They are finished with a (now aged) golden bronze finish. Click on the photo above to learn more about them.
More horse-themed bookends tomorrow and in the days to come.
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