Indian Rider at Sunset 

Editor: Albert Bierstadt’s “Indian Rider at Sunset," an oil-on-canvas plein-air piece. It’s just a simple landscape at first glance. It has this very striking fiery sunset but something feels… romanticized about it. What am I missing here? What do you see in this piece that I may be overlooking? Curator: It is quite striking, isn’t it? The "Indian Rider at Sunset," by Bierstadt encapsulates a fascinating moment in the public's perception of the American West. Consider that it was painted during a time when westward expansion and the "vanishing race" narrative were prominent. This painting participates in the myth-making of the American West and, more broadly, in constructing the nation. Editor: A "vanishing race"? Curator: Yes. This concept was circulated through popular culture and government policies and implied Indigenous populations were inevitably declining and disappearing and therefore assimilation to the settler ways and erasure of indigeneity and claim to lands were framed as ‘necessary.' It becomes another justification to claim land. Knowing that this historical narrative was already influencing the art world at the time it becomes more than just an Indian rider at sunset. It is then meant to communicate loss of tradition with romantic aesthetics. Who benefits from creating such a public perception? Editor: It really recontextualizes what seems like a landscape, turning it into this really loaded image. Thank you for pointing out how knowing the historical setting changes the piece. I appreciate that I understand this landscape in a new light, more critically. Curator: Precisely, art isn’t created in a vacuum. The history surrounding this artist's work reveals deeper cultural complexities than one might have initially considered.