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   USA > New York City > Metropolitan Museum of Art > Engelhard Yard Court > The Sun vow
The Sun vow

The Sun vow





Relationship with : Le Soleil

Date : 1898

Material : Bronze
Acquisition : Rogers Fund (1919)
Item 12 on 32
American Art
Sculpture

Area related
USA

Description   

By the 1890s, with the growing romantic concern for the nation's vanishing frontier, Native American and Western themes has become extremely popular. Sculptors Frederic Remington, Alexander Phimister Proctor, Hermon Atkins MacNeil, Cyrus Dallin and others devoted a large part of their production to these subjects. MacNeil was particulary noted for the dignity and the authenticity of his figures. On a visit to a North American tribe, the sculptor heard a legend of a youth, here identified as a Sioux, who took an oath of allegiance to his tribe in the hope of becoming a warrior - a distinction earned by demonstrating to the chief his ability to throw an arrow into the sun. If the arrow disappeared from sight, because of the sun's blinding rays, the youth had proven his prowess. MacNeil heightened the visual impact of his composition by depicting the moment that the arrow was released. This cast, 1919.
More pictures   
The Sun vow
Hermon Atkins MacNeil
Le Soleil