The March 14, 1893, issue of the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette feature an extensive biography of Farny and included the image of the 1890 painting The Apaches Are Out! owned by Charles Taft. The painting is depicted in the three-painting image further down this post.
The Apaches Are Out! remained in Taft’s collection through 1920, where it is listed, on page 16, as part of an accounting of his entire collection.
In 1943 the Cincinnati Art Museum held a Farny exhibition. According to the 1943 catalog, there were more than a 140 paintings featured. One of those was titled Arizona, lent by Hulbert Taft, the nephew of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Taft. Several newspaper articles of the time featured stories on the exhibit, including one that posted a photo of a painting called In Arizona. The image looks exactly like that of The Apaches Are Out, so it seems that the name got changed when the painting landed into Hulbert’s ownership.
On January 11, 1959, another article in the Cincinnati Enquirer depicted still owned by Hulbert Taft, but no name assigned to it in a caption.
In 1978, it seems the name was changed, again. In Denny Carter’s 1978 “Henry Farny” book on page 74 and in the 1981 “The Realistic Expressions of Henry Farny Retrospective” catalog on page 28, both have it named Through the Pass. While there are a variety of examples of Farny making near copies of paintings, I have yet to find him making exact copies.
Here is a comparison photo between the the three images.
#1 The Apaches are Out!: from the 1893 article in the Commerical Gazette,
#2 In Arizona: from the 1943 article in the Cincinnati Enquirer (which was actually labeled 1890 Arizona in the 1943 CAM catalog)
#3 Through the Pass: from a photo on page 74 of Denny Carter’s book
My conclusion, In Arizona and Through the Pass images look identical to The Apaches are Out! and are likely the same image.
Another note about this artwork. In 1889, Farny completed an illustration for the serialized story Red Mustang, by William Stoddard. It could well have been a study for the above painting.
