Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-08-26
Walt WhitmRn's Picturesque
Description of the Picture.

Walt Whitman in the New York Tribune,l
l went to-day to see this just
finished painting by John Mulvany,
who has been out in far Montana on
the spot, at the fort and among the
frontiersmen, soldiers and Indians for
the last two or three years on purpose
to sketch it from reality, or the pest
that could be got of it. | sat for over
an hour over the picture, completely
absorbed in the first view. A vast
canvass, / should say twenty or twenty
two feet by twelve, all crowded and
yet not crowded, conveying such a
vivid display of color, it takes a little
time to get used to it. There are no
tricks; there is no throwing Of shades
10 masses; it is all at first painfully
real, overwhelming, needs good nerves
to look at it. Forty or fifty figures,
perhaps more, in full finish and detail,
lite size in the Underground, with three
times that number, or more,
through the rest-swarms upon
swarms Of savage Sioux in their war
bonnets, frantic, mostly on ponies,
driving through the background,
through the smoke, like a hurricane
of demons. A dozen Of the figures
are wonderful. Altogether a Western,
autochthonic phase Of America, the
frontiers, eliminating typical, deadly,
heroic, to the uttermost; nothing in
the books like it, nothing in Homer,
nothing in Shakespeare; more grim
and sublime than either, all native,
all our own, and all a fact-a great lot
Of muscular, tan-faced men brought
to bay under terrible circumstances
Death ahold of them, yet every mar
undaunted, not one losing his head,
wringing out every cent of the pay be-
fore they sell their lives.
Custer (his hair cut short) stands in
the middle with dilated eye and ex-
tended arm, aiming a huge cavalry
pistol. Captain Cook is there, partially
wounded, blood on the white handker-
chief around his head, but aiming his
carbine coolly, half kneeliDg (his body
was alterward found close by C%uster's.)
The slaughtered or half slaughtered
horses for breastWorks make a peculiar
feature. Two dead Indians, herculean,
lie in the foreground clutching their
Winchester rifes-very characteristic.
The many soldiers, their faces and
attitudes, the carbines, the broad
brimmed Western hats, the powder
smoke in putfs, the dying horses with
their rolling eyes, almost human in their
agony; the clouds of war bonneted
Sioux in the background, the figures
of Custer and Cook, with, indeed, the
whole scene, i~nexpressible, dreadful,
yet, with an attraction and beauty that
will remain forever in my memory.
With all its color and fierce action a
certain Greek confluence pervades it.
A sunny light and clear sky envelop
all. There is an almost entire absence
Of the stock traits Of European war
pictures. The physi ,gnomy of the
work is realistic and Western.
| only saw it for an hour or SO, but,
it needs to be seen many times-needs
to be studied over and over again
could look on such work at brief
intervals all my life without firing. 1t
is very tonic to me. Then it has an
ethic purpose below all, as all great
art must have.
The artist said the sending of the
picture abroad, probably to London
had been talked Of. | advised him il
it went abroad to take it to Paris. /
think they might appreciate it there
nay, thoy certainly would. Then
would like to show Messieur Crapeau
that some things can be done in
America as well as others. Altogether
Clusters Last Rally is one Of the very
few attempts at deliberate artistic ex
preston for our land and people, on a
pretty ambitious standard and pro-
gramme, that impressed me as filling
the bill.
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