The Dry Leaves Lasted Longer Than She 1899

Frederic Remington painted "The Dry Leaves Lasted Longer Than She" using oil on canvas in the late 19th or early 20th century. In it we see a Native American woman next to a fire inside a tipi. Beside her is a dead body wrapped in blankets. Remington, a Yale School of Art dropout, was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in depictions of the Old West. We can understand how these depictions reflect the American Government’s policy of westward expansion and the rhetoric of manifest destiny. The romanticism with which Remington portrays the Old West helps to justify the domination of the American landscape and the erasure of native people and their cultures. To fully understand Remington's work, we can look to government documents, cultural histories, and the work of contemporary Native American artists who are reframing the narrative of the Old West.