Indians Simulating Buffalo

At first glance, this looks like a pair of buffalo bending down to graze in the tall golden grass. Give it a second, though, and the trick reveals itself. These are Native American hunters wrapped in buffalo hides, a clever disguise that let them sneak up on a herd without setting off alarm. One hunter's face peers out from under the fur, quietly giving the whole game away to anyone watching carefully. Frederic Remington caught that split second of deception, when the eye believes one thing and the truth is something else entirely.

Remington built his reputation on the American West, painting cowboys, cavalry, and Native peoples in the thick of action. By 1908, near the close of his career, his approach had loosened considerably. The prairie here shimmers in warm tans and honey tones, the distant mountains dissolve into a soft haze, and the paint is applied in gentle dabs rather than crisp lines. He was clearly chasing light and atmosphere, borrowing a bit from the Impressionists while keeping his subject firmly planted in frontier life.

The painting rewards you on two levels. As a landscape, it feels calm and sun-soaked, a wide-open stretch of grassland under a pale sky. As a story, it records a hunting method tied to a way of life that was already slipping away when Remington set it down. And there is a bit of fun in it too, since the artist wants you to be fooled, at least for the moment it takes to spot the man beneath the hide.