{"data":{"id":97910,"api_model":"artworks","api_link":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/97910","is_boosted":true,"title":"The Advance-Guard, or The Military Sacrifice (The Ambush)","alt_titles":null,"thumbnail":{"lqip":"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBwAFAPUAAFZHQnxpXXlqYnl6fIpvYJaFeZaKfKGLe6yUc7KVcbWffnV9goSNj4yMjISPmYiQk4iTm6+ch6OYjqKZj6eZjaaajaibibmdgLOejKOck7qhjKWgl7Glk7ilkZ2lqpGispSqvpipuZWswgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAAHAAUAAAYhwAfkAxKFPIzBwtHgWCoBgMCgQGgOhMImksBUMpNJ5xIEADs=","width":13192,"height":9306,"alt_text":"Three cavalry scouts\u2014light-skinned men mounted on gleaming brown horses\u2014among light-beige, arid mountains. The figure in the foreground has begun to to slump and seems poised to fall, his rifle on the ground, his horse agitated and alarmed. The others ride off in pursuit."},"main_reference_number":"1982.802","has_not_been_viewed_much":false,"boost_rank":null,"date_start":1890,"date_end":1890,"date_display":"1890","date_qualifier_title":"","date_qualifier_id":null,"artist_display":"Frederic Remington (American, 1861\u20131909)","place_of_origin":"New York","description":"

Frederic Remington crafted this scene of bloody confrontation for white audiences east of the Mississippi River, who imagined the West as a place of both danger and opportunity. An unseen Sioux warrior has shot a cavalry scout, who slumps over his horse while the troops behind him flee the ambush. A sculptor and illustrator as well as a painter, Remington was famous for his dynamic compositions of frontier life, which presented mythologized views of encounters between Native and settler-colonial communities in tantalizing color and detail. Although he traveled to western locations to sketch or gather material on assignment, he executed most of his work in his New York studio, including The Advance-Guard<\/em>, which was later reproduced in Harper\u2019s Weekly<\/em> alongside an article by the artist.<\/p>\n","short_description":"Frederic Remington, famous for his dynamic compositions of frontier life, presented mythic, romanticized views of the American West. Here, a cavalry scout, shot by an unseen Souix warrior, slumps over his horse while the troops behind him flee the ambush. Like most of his work, it was created for a white audience who understood the West as a place of both danger and opportunity.","dimensions":"87.3 \u00d7 123.1 cm (34 3\/8 \u00d7 48 1\/2 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":123,"height":87,"diameter":null,"clarification":null}],"medium_display":"Oil on canvas","inscriptions":"Signed recto, bottom-left, on ground, in red paint: \"Frederic Remington- \/ 1890\u2022\".","credit_line":"George F. Harding Collection","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"New York Times<\/em> (January 9, 1893).\n\nNew York Daily Tribune<\/em> (January 14, 1893), 7, col. 5.\n\nNew York Sun<\/em> (January 14, 1893), 2, col. 7.\n\nNew York Times<\/em> (January 14, 1893), 8, col. 4.\n\nFrederic Remington, \u201cThe Advance Guard, or The Military Sacrifice,\u201d Harper\u2019s Weekly<\/em> (September 16, 1893), 886, ill., 888\u2013889.\n\nRemington, 1895, 55 (ill.).\n\nEarle 1924, 265.\n\nDowney, 1941, ill. opp. p. 234 as The Ambush<\/em>.\n\nFrederic Remington, Pony Tracks<\/em> (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961), ill.\n\nHarold McCracken, The Frederic Remington Book: A Pictorial History of the West<\/em> (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1966), no. 212.\n\nPeggy and Harold Samuels, ed. The Collected Writings of Frederic Remington<\/em> (Doubleday, 1979), 110, ill.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Annual Report, 1982\u201383<\/em> (Chicago, 1983), fig. 20, 26, ill.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, A Record of Sharing with Chicago\u2019s Masterpiece<\/em> (Chicago, 1983), 8, ill.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago<\/em> (Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown, 1988), 97, ill.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Annual Report 1987\u201388 (Chicago, 1988), fig. 18, 39, ill.\n\nAllen P. and Marilyn D. Splete, Frederic Remington: Selected Letters<\/em> (Abbeville Press, 1988), 119, 121.\n\nPeter H. Hassrick and Melissa J. Webster, Frederic Remington: A Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings, Volume I<\/em> (Buffalo Bill Historical Center \/ University of Washington Press, 1996), 369, no. 1207.\n\nJudith A. Barter, Window on the West: Chicago and the Art of the New Frontier 1890-1940<\/em>, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago; New York and Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills Press, 2003), 82, 168, cat. 73, fig. 2 (ill.).\n\nYang Zhigang, ed., Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865\u20131945<\/em>, exh. cat. (Shanghai Book and Painting Press, 2018), cat. 8.\n\nPeter H. Hassrick, et al., Frederick Remington Catalogue Raisonn\u00e9<\/em>, accessed May 5, 2020, http:\/\/remington.centerofthewest.org<\/a>, cat. 01207, as The Advance\u2013Guard, or the Military Sacrifice<\/em>.\n\nPaintings at the Art Institute of Chicago, Highlights of the Collection<\/em>, (Art Institute of Chicago\/Yale University Press, 2017), 93.\n\nYang Zhigang, ed., Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865\u20131945<\/em>, exh. cat. (Shanghai Book and Painting Press, 2018), cat. 8.","exhibition_history":"St. Louis, 1892.\n\nNew York, American Art Galleries, 1893.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Paintings and Bronzes by Frederic Remington Lent by the George F. Harding Museum<\/em>, June 21\u2013Oct. 10, 1969.\n\nMt. Vernon, Ill., Mitchell Museum, Harding Foundation, Medieval and Renaissance Armor and Weapons, Remington Paintings, Bronzes and Drawings<\/em>, Dec. 5, 1981\u2013Jan. 31, 1982, cat. 405.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Frederic Remington<\/em>, Sept. 1\u2013Oct. 11, 1982, no cat.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Window on the West: Chicago and the Art of the New Frontier, 1890-1940<\/em><\/a>, June 10\u2013Oct. 16, 2003, cat. 73.\n\nShanghai Museum, Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865\u20131945<\/em>, Sept. 28, 2018\u2013Jan. 6, 2019, cat. 8.","provenance_text":"Frederic Remington, 1890; E.H. Wales, 1893. George F. Harding, Jr. (1868\u20131939), Chicago, by 1939 [Harding Collection no. 405]; bequeathed to the George F. Harding Museum, Chicago, 1939 [the museum closed in 1964 and the collection was placed in storage in Chicago and New York]; transferred to the Art Institute of Chicago, July 30, 1982 [incoming receipt, RX13605, July 30, 1982; copy in curatorial object file]; accessioned by the Art Institute of Chicago, 1982.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":21,"fiscal_year":1982,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":0,"color":{"h":208,"l":52,"s":5,"percentage":0.001025538666017099,"population":1259},"latitude":41.879246937606,"longitude":-87.6222233298512,"latlon":"41.879246937606,-87.622223329851","is_on_view":false,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":null,"gallery_id":null,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Arts of the Americas","department_id":"PC-3","artist_id":21570,"artist_title":"Frederic Remington","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[21570],"artist_titles":["Frederic Remington"],"category_ids":["PC-3"],"category_titles":["Arts of the Americas"],"term_titles":["painting","oil painting","oil paint (paint)","fashion","organic material","painting (image making)","american arts","animals","people","portraits"],"style_id":null,"style_title":null,"alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":[],"style_titles":[],"classification_id":"TM-9","classification_title":"painting","alt_classification_ids":["TM-2191"],"classification_ids":["TM-9","TM-2191"],"classification_titles":["painting","american arts"],"subject_id":"TM-8663","alt_subject_ids":["TM-12218","TM-8810","TM-8658"],"subject_ids":["TM-8663","TM-12218","TM-8810","TM-8658"],"subject_titles":["fashion","animals","people","portraits"],"material_id":"TM-2451","alt_material_ids":["TM-2601"],"material_ids":["TM-2451","TM-2601"],"material_titles":["oil paint (paint)","organic material"],"technique_id":"TM-4273","alt_technique_ids":["TM-3891"],"technique_ids":["TM-4273","TM-3891"],"technique_titles":["oil painting","painting (image making)"],"theme_titles":[],"image_id":"f1e03813-f9c7-f4f8-fbe8-a5eeae84fda4","alt_image_ids":["9ceda08e-6efd-c73f-3ab7-961a80e46d43"],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_boosted":"The Advance-Guard, or The Military Sacrifice (The Ambush)","suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1982.802"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["The Advance-Guard, or The Military Sacrifice (The Ambush)"],"weight":14427,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-08-21T16:09:55-05:00","updated_at":"2026-08-21T19:24:48-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-06T05:47:58-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.15"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}