1915: Farny Exhibition at the CAM

In 1915 the Cincinnati Museum featured a showing of Farny’s works two years before he passed away. There are some unique painting names that don’t appear in any other exhibits or books. Without dates, some of these paintings are difficult to connect with modern examples. The text of the document will be followed by scans of photocopies of the 1915 booklet (thanks to Suzanne Nunez for these scans!)

CINCINNATI MUSEUM

LOAN EXHIBITION
OF PAINTINGS BY
HENRY F. FARNY

APRIL 24 TO MAY 16: 1915
ART MUSEUM: EDEN PARK

MR. HENRY F. FARNY

It seems needless to say that the pictures of Mr. Farny speak for themselves better than any words can. They are the outcome of a lifetime of absorbed and concentrated interest. His early work shows to some extent the influence of Munkacsy of whom he was a friend and naturally a great admirer. This influence, however, soon disappeared and with the finding of a field that he soon made his own he adopted a manner of expression equally his own and that was best suited to what he wanted his pictures to say.

The Indian as a subject for pictorial treatment had always appealed to him when a boy very strongly indeed, and his contact with them at that time made a marked and enduring impression on his youthful imagination, and when he had “learned his trade” so to speak, and become an accomplished painter, the romantic interest of the boy still remained, but added thereto was the serious interest of the man, gifted with a remarkably keen and discriminating observation and a rarely retentive memory.

Add to this a very fine understanding of what goes to make the pattern or design of a picture and we realize that just one thing more is needed to make an artist in the full meaning of the word, the “cap sheaf” so to speak, and that is imagination. That Mr. Farny has this gift of imagination, the most valuable of all to the painter, or to any creative worker, his pictures very abundantly prove. They combine most successfully the pictorial and illustrative phases of the painter’s art.

Pictorially considered each tells its own story in the success of the design as something attractive and beautiful to look at, quite apart from any story or incident that it may tell; on the other hand the subject or incident that is the basis of the picture is always chosen with extraordinary insight and judgment, and the story is told clearly, graphically, and from a point of view that has a strong and wide appeal.

L. H. MEAKIN

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1. The Old Buffalo Trail
2. In Days Of Peace.
3. The Long Day’s Task Is Done.
4. The Thunder Horse.
5. The Scout (hard to know if this is the 1891 version or not)
6. Zuni Girl
7. Big Game In Sight.
8. Return From The Hunt (hard to know which version this was)
9. The Quest Of The Mountain Elk
10. An Aristocrat Of The Plains
11. A Mighty Hunter
12. Out For The Supper Pot
13. Portrait Of A Gentleman
14. Winter Morning On The Ohio
15. Nana
16. Geronimo (unclear which one)
    Numbers 1 to 16 lent by Mrs. Larz Anderson
17. The White Man’s Trail
    
Lent by the Business Men’s Club
18. Renegade Apaches
    Lent by the Cincinnati Museum
19. Return from the Bear Hunt
    Lent by George W. Dittmann
20. A Sioux Camp
21. Zuni (Unclear if this is “NYUTCHI” THE OLD WAR CHIEF •ZUNI• or something else)
    Both lent by Mrs. Frederick Eckstein
22. The Buffalo Range
    Lent by George D. Eustis
23. The Last of his Tribe (this likely refers to The Last Vigil, which Fleischman bought in 1881)
24. Yarns of a Sumer Day
    Both lent by Julius Fleischmann
25. The Chief’s Messenger
    Lent by Miss Mary Hanna
26. The Killing of an Elk (this could be 1912 Indian Elk Hunting, owned by Frieda Hauck)
    Lent by Louis J. Hauck.
27. Danger
28. In Battle Array
    Both lent by Mrs. A. Howard Hinkle.
29. Toilers of the Plains
    Lent by W. H. Hinkle.
30. The Ford (Dan Holmes bought this as Seeking the Ford, but didn’t like the name)
31. A Mountain Pass (unclear which one this is)
32. Salino, Kiway
    All lent by Mrs. D. H. Holmes
33. Father Jaques
    Lent by Simon Hubig
34. Sioux Hunting Camp
    Lent by Dr. F. A. Hunter
35. The Morning of a New Day (Appears to have wrong title or someone changed it .. M E Ingalls bought Coming of a New Day, per newspaper reports of the time)
    Lent by Mrs. M. E. Ingalls
36. Hunting Camp on the Plains
    Lent by W. A. Julian
37. On Strange Ground
    Lent by C. H. Krippendorf
38. Peace
    Lent by H. F. Lackman
39. Indian Camp (unclear which this is)
40. Ready for a Shot
    Both lent by Harry M. Levy
41. A Sioux Lover (unsure which this is)
42. Squaw and Child (unsure which this is)
    Both lent by N. Ashley Lloyd
43. Pursued
    Lent by Dr. Robert Sattler
44. The Horse Stealers
45. Sketch (this could be anything)
    Both lent by W. Kesley Schoepf
46. Song of the Talking Wire
    Lent by Charles P. Taft
47. The End of the Monarch
    Lent by Fred Von Steinwehr
48. Into the Unknown
    Lent by George H. Warrington
49. In the Black Hills
    Lent by Dennis Weiskopf
50. The Trail Over the Pass
    Lent by Mrs. Morris M. White
51. Danger (unsure which this is)
52. Treed
53. Study (this could be anything)
54. On the Plains (unsure which this is)
55. Mountain Pass (unsure which this is)
    All lent by Howard E. Wurlitzer
56. In the Heart of the Rockies
57. The Isle of Capri (likely 1872 Monte Castello, in the Island of Capri)
58. Winter
59. Gwynn Falls
    All lent by Mrs. R. Wurlitzer
60. The Flight of the Eagle (sketch) (unsure which this is)
61. The Visitor (unsure on this one)
62. Evening
63. Follett’s Run
64. Ott’s Run
    All lent by Rudolph H. Wurlitzer