"The Vanishing Race" Gold Tone by Edward Sheriff Curtis

"The Vanishing Race" gold tone photograph by Edward S. Curtis; (1904). Signed lower right "Curtis/LA." Period frame. This is perhaps the most popular and best known of all the Curtis Indian Pictures, being internationally famous. It is a picture which the artist carried in his mind for several years and in which he endeavored to express the thought that the day of the Indian is drawing to a close and that they are literally riding toward the shadows of the last setting sun. The unusual beauty and quiet tragedy form the combination which has caused critics to pronounce this the most remarkable photograph ever taken… Edward S. Curtis, The Curtis Studio, Seattle, Wash." This was Curtis's signiure piece and was the visual metaphor for the core conceptual underpinning of Curtis’ entire thirty-year project i.e., that Native Americans, as a culture, at least, were vanishing. It became Curtis’ over-arching goal to create a record of them and their world before they disappeared forever. Curtis searched for an image to illustrate this idea for nearly four years before creating The Vanishing Race. A century ago, it was by far and away Curtis’ most popular single image. Today it still remains a highly sought after classic.