Lot 9
Cyrus Edwin Dallin(1861-1944)The Signal of Peace 12 in. high
26 April 2022, 13:00 PDT
Los AngelesSold for US$10,200 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Western Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Aaron Bastian
Director
Cyrus Edwin Dallin (1861-1944)
The Signal of Peace
inscribed '© C.E. Dallin 1890' (on the base) and stamped 'Gorham Founders / Q519 / #37' (along the base edge)
bronze with brown patina
12 in. high
Modeled in 1890, cast circa 1934.
inscribed '© C.E. Dallin 1890' (on the base) and stamped 'Gorham Founders / Q519 / #37' (along the base edge)
bronze with brown patina
12 in. high
Modeled in 1890, cast circa 1934.
Footnotes
Provenance
Shannon's Fine Art Auctioneers, October 25, 2007, lot 183.
Private collection, New York, New York, from the above.
By family descent.
Literature
Patricia J. Broder, Bronzes of the American West, New York, 1973, pp. 94-95, 96, pl. 88, another example illustrated.
Rell G. Francis, Cyrus E. Dallin: Let Justice Be Done, Springville, Utah, 1976, pp. 37-40, another example illustrated.
Kent Ahrens, Cyrus E. Dallin: His Small Bronzes and Plasters, University of Washington Press, 1995, no. 6, p. 37, another example illustrated.
Conceived as the first of four important life-size equestrian monuments that illustrate the "cycle of Indian's relations with the white man", Cyrus Dallin was inspired to create The Signal of Peace based on a meeting he witnessed as a child between Ute Indians and United States Army officers. 1 In The Spirit of Peace, a Sioux chief in full war bonnet sits astride a motionless horse. In his right hand he holds a spear vertically and gazes forward "totally trusting and ready to offer his friendship and good will with the newcomers." 2
Dallin modeled a life sized version of The Signal of Peace in clay in 1899 and it was cast in Paris the following year. 3 The sculpture was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1890 and the Chicago Exposition in 1893. The original life sized sculpture was purchased and donated to the city of Chicago by Judge Lambert Tree and it was dedicated in Lincoln Park in 1894 where it remains. The Signal of Peace led to Dallin receiving major recognition as a sculptor, and he was elected to the National Sculpture Society in 1893.
According to the Gorham Foundry ledger, the present work was shipped to the Bronze Division of Gorham's New York office in 1934. The ledger records 78 casts of The Signal of Peace of which the present work is number 37.
1 Patricia J. Broder, Bronzes of the American West, New York, 1973, p. 95.
2 Ibid., p. 94.
3 Ibid., p. 95.
