In early February 1895, a group of friends, acquaintances of Farny, met to ponder two paintings recently completed by Farny, one titled The Big Chief and the other The Medicine Man. This tale was revealed thirty years later in a June 01, 1924, Cincinnati Time-Star article (page 12):
Here is a little story about Farny, and his susceptibiliIty to kidding. One, night at the famous old Stag, the bunch, which included Henry Ziegler, George Campbell (he always referred to himself as ‘G’), George Griffith, George Hobson and Tony Honing mellowed into a sentimental mood at the expense of a few cold bottles and they decided to present George B. Cox and Dr. Thomas Graydon each with a picture. After, a long and earnest discussion punctuated by the frequent pop of the corks, they decided to have Farny paint them. Honing was appointed a committee of one, with full power to act, to carry out the idea.
Farny was to paint two Indian heads and if they looked wild enough to suit Honing the artist was to get one hundred dollars for the two. Those same pictures now, by the way, would command about a thousand dollars each. So the great artist, who then was climbing the ladder of fame, executed the work and they were splendid creations. The one that represented Cox, Farny called ‘The Big Chief,’ while the title of Graydon’s Indian was ‘The Medicine Man’. Farny took the two works to the Stag for inspection. In drifted Campbell and with his kidding clothes on. He suggested that the bunch have some fun at Farny’s expense.
“We’ll roast the pictures and get him to knock off a few bucks,” said Campbell. Farny came in a few minutes later. Campbell was sizing up the great paintings and when he saw Farny he turned to Honing and said, “Say, Honing, what are these pictures about? Woodsheds on fire? Call them Indians? Why, Honing, you had wilder Indians with Hamilton & Weldon’s circus when you were handling the three die case. Say, Honing, are you getting nutty? Are you going to pay that guy one hundred dollars for those things? To me they look like the labels of a couple of cans of corn syrup?”
Farny flushed. He stood it as long as he could and then he retired to the back room.
When he left, Campbell said, “Tony, those paintings are wonderful. You ought to give him $150 for them.” Dan Murphy was tending bar at The Stag at the time and he walked back into the rear room where he found the artist shedding bitter tears. He said to Murphy, ‘I wouldn’t care if they refused to take them, but to ridicule works of art In that manner affects me. I feel like going back in there and cutting those canvases to pieces. Dan went back to the bunch and advised Honing not to let Farny get his hands on the paintings, as he was in the mood to reduce them to ribbons.
“He is wilder than the Indians.” reported Murphy. So the crowd went back, slapped Farny on the back, escorted him up to the front, seated him at a table, opened a few quarts of wine, paid him his fee and everything was lovely. Murphy gave it as his opinion that the titles alone were worth the money.
On February 17, 1885, following the review of the paintings at the Stag, Dr. Thomas W. Gradyon (1900 Obit) was presented with his painting. The Cincinnati Enquirer misreported the name as The Big Medicine Man, then the following week changed it to The Medicine Chief (rather than Medicine Man).
There is a painting by the name The Medicine Chief from 1895 located at the Gilcrease Museum. I posted it below. To it I’ve added pics of Cox (left) and Graydon (right) to the image to see the comparisons. At first, I thought the image looked more like Cox, but it could be Graydon. Whomever it is, I believe it is one of the two paintings Farny prepared for the men.
Perhaps it’s not a big surprise that Farny may have based the above painting on one he’d done three years earlier called The Medicine Man (1892).
Thanks to a couple different bits of evidence, we also know that in 1904 Farny created another painting with the name Medicine Man (also called The Old Medicine Man in the 1943 Cam show, lent by Mr. & Mrs. Harry S. Leyman), but I expect that painting is unrelated to the earlier ones (I’ve yet to see an image of it).
