Cyrus Edwin Dallin (American, 1861–1944)
The Scout, 1910
Bronze with rich brown patina, 23½ in.
Initialed © C. E. D., dated 1910, inscribed Gorham Co. Founders, stamped Q488, numbered #31
Cyrus Dallin first modeled The Scout in 1910, drawing from sketches made during his visits to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West camp in Neuilly, France while studying in Paris. This bronze became the basis for his ten-foot monumental version, which won the gold medal at the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco and was later acquired by the city of Kansas City, Missouri, where it remains a civic landmark.
The Scout is part of Dallin’s celebrated “Indian Cycle” of bronzes—including The Signal of Peace, The Medicine Man, and Appeal to the Great Spirit—that reflect both his admiration for Native peoples and his critique of their treatment in American society.
As the sculptor Lorado Taft once wrote, “Rodin used to tell us that his task was to find the heroic in the everyday actions. Mr. Dallin finds it without difficulty in his favorite subjects and our critics are enriched through his sympathetic interpretations.”
