Study of Indian Riding c. 1890

Walter Shirlaw made this graphite sketch, entitled 'Study of Indian Riding,’ which captures a Native American figure poised mid-motion. Reflecting the late 19th-century American fascination with the ‘exotic’ and ‘vanishing’ Native American, Shirlaw, like many artists of his time, contributed to the cultural narrative that romanticized and, simultaneously, othered Indigenous peoples. This work exists within a context of governmental policies aimed at assimilation and displacement, which drastically impacted Native communities. The sketch’s intimacy invites us to consider the individual within the representation, to ponder on the emotional and physical realities of a life lived amid cultural erasure and resistance. Shirlaw’s sketch, while ostensibly a study of form and movement, becomes a poignant reflection on identity, resilience, and the complex, often fraught, relationship between artist and subject in an era of profound cultural upheaval.