Mid 20th Century After Cyrus Edwin Dallin "Appeal to the Great Spirit," Large Native American Bronze Statue.

Description

After Cyrus Edwin Dallin (American, 1861-1944), "Appeal to the Great Spirit," bronze sculpture on marble base, bears signature at bottom, … more After Cyrus Edwin Dallin (American, 1861-1944), "Appeal to the Great Spirit," bronze sculpture on marble base, bears signature at bottom, overall (with base): 20"h x 12"w x 16.5"w. Provenance: Property from the estate of Mr. Robert Darwin, television and film personality, author, and noted philanthropist.
History,
Appeal to the Great Spirit is a 1908[1] equestrian statue by Cyrus Dallin, located in front of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It portrays a Native American on horseback facing skyward, his arms spread wide in a spiritual request to the Great Spirit. It was the last of Dallin's four prominent sculptures of Indigenous people known as The Epic of the Indian, which also include A Signal of Peace (1890), The Medicine Man (1899), and Protest of the Sioux (1904).

A statuette of Appeal to the Great Spirit is in the permanent collection of the White House and was exhibited in President Bill Clinton's Oval Office. British Prime Minister Rt. Hon. David Lloyd George also had a statuette, which he received in association with a meeting with Sioux Chief Two Eagle during an October 1923 tour of the US and Canada[2]

In literature and the arts,
Brother Records logo
An early instance of the sculpture's place in American culture is its appearance (as photographed by Baldwin Coolidge) on the cover of "A-M-E-R-I-C-A" (1917), a World War I song by May Greene and Billy Lang and published by D. W. Cooper.
The sculpture is used as the logo for the Beach Boys' vanity record label Brother Records. It was first seen in the lower-left corner on the band's 1967 album Smiley Smile and its attending single "Heroes and Villains", and was used more prominently on the cover of their 1973 album The Beach Boys in Concert. When Beach Boy Carl Wilson was asked in 1975 why the group used this as their logo, he said the Indian was chosen because Brian, Dennis, and Carl's grandfather believed that there was a spiritual Indian "guide" who watched over them from the "other side". The choice of the logo was Brian's. Carl called the logo "The Last Horizon".[17]
A painting of the sculpture appears on the cover of the album The Time Is Near (1970) by the rock group Keef Hartley Band.
A painting of the sculpture appears on the cover of the album Spirit of God (1984) by the Native American Gospel recording artist Johnny P. Curtis.
A painting of the sculpture appears on the cover of the album Lysol (1992) by rock group The Melvins.
In the vinyl release of Directions to See a Ghost (2008) by the American rock band The Black Angels, the poster inside features a skeleton form of this sculpture with a psychedelic background.
In 2020, Dartmouth College's Hood Museum of Art commissioned Cree artist Kent Monkman to paint The Great Mystery, which reinterprets the Appeal to the Great Spirit sculpture incorporating a Mark Rothko painting in the background. The work is displayed near a mid-sized version of Dallin's sculpture.[18]
In 2021, two temporary art installations were placed around and near to the sculpture. Raven Reshapes Boston: A Native Corn Garden at the MFA, by Elizabeth James-Perry, (Aquinnah Wampanoag, b. 1973), consists of corn, beans, and sedges planted in a small garden completely surrounding the statue. Ekua Holmes (African American, b. 1955), planted a large patch of sunflowers close by, called Radiant Community, as part of her ongoing Roxbury Sunflower Project.[19][20] less