16 A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION THROUGH TIME T he Wyoming section of the Green River and the Wind River Range which bears its source have captivated artists for generations. Artists of Euro-American descent first encountered the river in the 1830s. The timeline of Indigenous art histories in the region is far longer. Materially and visually, Tony’s plein air work extends a long tradition of landscape painting derived from European paradigms. His use of watercolor over pencil drawings made in the field harkens to nineteenth-century landscape studies whose creators, like Tony, were skilled draftsmen; they espoused a Ruskinian commitment to close and direct observation of nature. But, despite a degree of formal compara- bility, Tony’s particular process and aspirations shape an output distinctly different from his forebears’. Tony works at large scale in the field and completes most of his work on location in rugged and remote areas amid mercurial weather conditions. This is contrary to the historically common practice of creating smaller, preparatory sketches outdoors or using reference photographs to serve as studies for grander paintings crafted in the comfort of a studio. Tony adds notes and color swatches directly into his compositions. Earlier artists often intended such marginalia to be covered by layers of paint or the frame’s edge; for Tony, they are an indispensable part of his work, adding dimension and depth. He incorpo- rates other “souvenirs” of a wide variety into his paintings or matted alongside them. These might include small painted sketches, collected or purchased objects, or bits of maps to articulate the experience and history of a place more comprehensively. The earliest representational depictions of the Green River and its environs ranged from reportorial attempts at topographical accuracy to dramatized depictions steeped in symbolism—usually a combina- tion of these types, and a potent blend of fact and fiction. In some cases, the historical record reveals artists’ intentions for their work or their patrons’ hopes for the messages and meanings the paintings might convey. Public reception can also be parsed from the archives to a degree. Taking this evidence into consideration, much has been written about early depictions of wild American scenery reflecting and bolstering prevailing cultural attitudes.4 Nineteenth-century artists created paintings of the Green that promoted (or were understood as promoting) the uniqueness of the area and its potential—for land use and development; as a site of or conduit for industry; as a scientific laboratory; or as an appealing destination for artists, tourists, and settlers. Beyond the distinctive geography and local flora and fauna, artists often emphasized the presence of Indigenous peoples whom they cast as romantic or threatening figures, or simply to suggest scale. In other works, artists excluded Native subjects—or signs of any human presence—from their landscape paintings for reasons ranging from practical to purposeful. Though some among this latter type appeared to depict timeless scenes of unpeopled, undeveloped lands, they were often implicitly future-focused in their lack of reference to the human histories of the areas depicted (especially recent histories of conquest) or the persistent Indigenous presence within them, thus offering up a tabula rasa ripe for colonial enterprise. Early depictions of the Green nearly always invoked deep appreciation for the grandeur and power of Nature, situating Man as a minor figure dwarfed by his sublime setting. Some artists offered their intended audience a commanding viewpoint within the scene, a privileged perspective from which to survey the area’s potential and consider means of harnessing it. Between the 1830s and the turn of the century, when artists of Euro-American descent first grappled with the Green River, there were few visual images of the area to reference. For Alfred Jacob Miller (1810–1874), there was no pictorial precedent to consider.5 As the first white artist to venture into the Rocky Mountain West, all Miller had to go on were stories relayed by mountain men and his patron William Drummond Stewart, a wealthy Scottish aristocrat and adventurer who had journeyed west in prior years. Accompanying Stewart and an American Fur Company caravan originating from St. Louis, Miller traveled more than one thousand miles to attend the 1837 fur trappers’ and traders’ summer rendezvous Source near Fremont’s Peak and runs southerly, making one of the tributaries of the great Colorado. As it is in close proximity to the Rocky Mountains every bend almost produces fine views, with the mountains forming a glorious background. —Alfred Jacob Miller on the Green River, Notes3
