193 On Trail of Almighty Voice

Category Art
Auction Currency USD
Start Price 15,000.00 USD
Estimated at 30,000.00 - 50,000.00 USD
On Trail of Almighty Voice
Artist: Friberg, ArnoldDate of Birth: 1913-2010
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 25 x 40 inches
Signed: Signed lower right/RSA
Verso: Titled and dated 1975 verso

Arnold Friberg simply wanted his art to “tell a story,” and he devoted himself to realism and history to achieve that end. Friberg’s most famous work is The Prayer at Valley Forge, a monumental painting of Washington kneeling in the snow which was painted for the Bicentennial and now hangs at Mount Vernon. Friberg also had a long association with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, doing hundreds of paintings of the Mounties. He specialized in Westerns and loved, perhaps above all else, to paint horses, an art he deemed “next to worship.” Almighty Voice was a Cree leader, arrested in 1895 for illegally butchering a government cow. Perhaps after overhearing a joke that the penalty for his crime would be death, Almighty Voice escaped and led the Mounted Police on an eighteen month manhunt punctuated by several deadly shootouts. The last of these, on May 30, 1897, resulted in Almighty Voice’s death. Friberg’s depiction of the pursuit is a study in grim determination. Reds and browns over the entire work externalize the fire that drives the Mountie on.