Vaclav Hollar - horse & rider, cart & wagon

 Salvete Omnes,

back to the XVII century: more riding and draft horses, carts  and wagons of our Bohemian-English artist - Vaclav Wenceclas Hollar.

mantelzak behind the rider

enjoy

Valete

Texan Horses and cowboys by Erwin Smith

Salvete Omnes, 

 new month of March 2025.

let us start with some fine photographs by a Texan artist Erwin S. Smith (1886 -1947), perhaps one of the finest photographs of the cowboy life and work-   collection of his work is located at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art . 

for the reference purposes - Turner's essays on the frontier in American history published in 1920 - on Archive World Library.

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Arapaho horses in 1870 - Fitz Hugh Ludlow

 Salvete Omnes,

travois in this print from Fitz' book

a quick lope into the Kansas and Colorado Great Plains of the post-1868 war ( battles of Washita and Summit Springs),  our witness to the life of the Plains people, the Arapahoes and their horses, was Fitz Hugh Ludlow .

 

Fitz of New York, was a writer and traveler who made a long trip across the Plains & the Rockies to California* and Oregon -his recollections of this journey - titled The Heart of the Continent - was published in New York in 1870, the year he died.

While his observation on the American Indian women and men, especially the Arapahoes in this chapter taking place near South Platter River, are far from flattering, his short description of the horses can be of interest.

This period, post 1868 on the Plains was the waning of the free roaming tribes and their pursuit of bison, as they have been ravaged by diseases and loss of good hunting and really the way of life.  Fitz pointed to one aspect of the Plains Indians' approach to horses, namely, that the horses and their riders seemed to communicate by touch and understanding. 

Photos by William S. Soule, circa 1870s

*Fitz will be back with his depiction of antelopes, bison and horses and horsetack in California

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Dutch Horses from the ealy 1800s - Pieter Gerardus van Os

 Salvete Omnes, 

when I was preparing  my  post about the Dutch horses in the XIX century art by Anton Mauve's brushwork  I looked up his teachers and teacher's father . One of teachers was Pieter Frederik van Os whose father was  Pieter Gerardus van Os.

Pieter van Os lived during the Napoleonic Wars and in 1813-14 he was a militia officer, a captain, and he participated in the warfare, like the siege of Naarden.

here are some of his horse and cow paintings and prints

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