Category: Insights or Questions
1892: Mountain Trail Painting
One of Farny painting that reached new eyes is the 1892 painting “Mountain Trail“. This painting was featured in a classic PBS Antique Road Show episode, where the owner had…
1887-02: Farny’s Suspicious Guests Vs. Unwelcome Guests
Farny’s Suspicious Guests was published in the February 05, 1887, issue, of Harper’s Weekly, pages 96-97. I have yet to locate the original of this illustration. After seeing the illustration…
1892: Indian Encampment Vs. With the Pony Herds
In 1893, Farny lent a painting called With the Pony Herds to 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. It appears that painting is now titled Indian Encampment. It was auctioned by Christies…
1890: ‘The Apaches are Out’, ‘In Arizona’, or ‘Through the Pass’?
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…
1901: “New Pastures” Painting Stolen in 1969
In 1901, Farny completed “Pastures New“. In 1969, this painting was stolen from a home in Indian Hill. An attempt to sell the painting in 1980 resulted in the arrest…
1896: Return of the War Party; River Bends
In 1896, Farny completed Return of the War Party, which showed an Indian war party traveling along a river. The river winds from left to right, towards the background before…
1884: Sketch & Paintings of Indian w/gun against rock
The 1884 book of Eclectic’s Primary History of the United State included a sketch showing an Indian against a steep rock, gun in hand. Farny would later repeat this theme…
1889: Peace Be With You Vs. 1886 Early Sketch
The Blanton Museum at the University of Texas has, amongst its collection of Farnys, a painting he completed in 1889 called Peace Be With You. It closely resembled a sketch…
1906: The Coming of the Fire Horse
In 1906, the Cincinnati Art Museum held its annual art exhibit. Included in that exhibit was Farny’s The Coming of the Fire Horse, according to an article in the July…
1898-1900: The End of the Monarch Paintings
A Clevelander by birth, Frank Wiborg moved to Cincinnati, attending high school at the Chickering Scientific and Classical Institute. In 1878, he co-launched, with Levi Ault, Ault & Wiborg, a…
1895: The Big Chief and The Medicine Man
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…
1883: Indian Fire Dance Vs. A Dance of Crow Indians
On December 15, 1883, Harpers Weekly published an illustration by Farny captioned with the name A Dance of Crow Indians. The image depicts an evening event related to the Last…
1881-12: “Silence” & “Early Moon” Painting
In the December 25, 1881, issue of the Cincinnati Commercial, a reporter mentioned he’d spotted Farny, likely a day or two before Christmas, mailing Christmas cards. The article also noted…
1865: “Confederacy in Petticoats”?
I’ve read about Henry Farny caricaturing Jefferson Davis in 1865 with a sketch that went “viral” in its day, but I could never hunt down the actual image. Now, with…
1877-10: “Indian Graves”
Farny unveiled his first Indian-themed work titled Indian Graves (by a newspaper) in October of 1877. The painting followed a trip west several months earlier. Despite what many biographies claim,…
1879-11: “Field Mice” Painting (1880’s Landscape with Children?)
A November 25, 1879, report in The Cincinnati Commercial, page 8, noted that Farny was working on a painting he called “Field Mice“, which featured some children burning a pile…