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The American frontier, constantly shifting westward in the nineteenth century, was interpreted by artists in many different ways. These range from topographical records of actual sites to Romantic fantasy. The dramatic mountain ranges and vast spaces of the western portion of the continent provided artists like Albert Bierstadt with spectacular subjects for panoramic works created to thrill urban audiences with monumental images of the wilderness sublime (76.79).

Frontier types have always appealed strongly to the popular imagination. Pioneers, hunters, trappers, and farmers populate many paintings and form the subjects of many sculptures. Their depiction may be relatively mundane as in George Caleb Bingham’s Shooting for the Beef (40.342) or Romantically daring as in Charles Deas’s Prairie on Fire (48.195). Images of Native Americans, like those of other frontier types, were often co-opted to play certain roles—those of the “noble savage” and the exotic “other”—in paintings and bronzes created for non-native audiences by artists working in European visual traditions.

In the twentieth century, Georgia O’Keeffe’s modernist vision of desert spaces focused on indigenous objects to evoke a strong, even spiritual, sense of place (1992.11.28). The lure of western space continues today.

	12.898	Alexander Phimister Proctor Indian Warrior, 1898 View object details...
	14.565	Alexander Phimister Proctor Buffalo, 1913 View object details...
	15.512	Adolph Alexander Weinman Chief Blackbird, the Ogalalla Sioux, modeled 1903, cast 1907 View object details...
	18.189	Olin Levi Warner Joseph Hin-Mah-Too-Yah-Lat-Kekht, Chief of the Nez Percé Indians, 1889 View object details...
	26.149	Harry C. Edwards Handsome Morning -- A Dakota, 1921 View object details...
	32.1602	Edwin Willard Deming Buffalo, 1908 View object details...
	40.208	Crystal Glass Company Platter (Alaskan scene), 1867 View object details...
	40.210	American Platter (Train with Engine #350), 1869 View object details...
	40.271	American Plate (Native American Chief), late 19th century View object details...
	43.25	Union Porcelain Works Century Vase, 1876 View object details...
	48.195	Charles Deas Prairie Fire, 1847 View object details...
	76.79	Albert Bierstadt A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie, 1866 View object details...
	84.176.4	Grace Young Vase, Chief Shavehead, ca. 1899 View object details...
	87.136.5a-b	Georgia O'Keeffe Rib and Jawbone (recto) and Tulip (verso), 1935 View object details...
	87.180	Gorham Manufacturing Company Compote, ca. 1868 View object details...
	1992.11.28	Georgia O'Keeffe Ram's Head, White Hollyhock-Hills (Ram's Head and White Hollyhock, New Mexico), 1935 View object details...
	1994.162.1a-b	James Gillinder & Sons Covered Standing Dish, Westward Ho Pattern, ca. 1880 View object details...