Adams, Cassilly (American 1843-1921). NATIVE AMERICANS HUNTING - TWO DRAWINGS. Charcoal and watercolor, not dated. One signed within the matrix of the drawing, lower right. Each about 7 x 10 inches. Both with a tack hole top and and bottom, center, and with residue from an old mount, verso. One wih a 1/2 x 1/2 inch loss at the top right corner. The images fresh. One shows two hunters with grass head-dress disguises, crouched behind low grasses,each with a rifle, a killed deer between them, and a herd moving across the field on the far side of the grasses. The other depicts two hunters wearing animal-skin disguises, each with a rifle, crouched behind grasses, beyond which a small herd of bison grazes.
The following is from American Western Art by Dorothy Harmsen:
Cassilly Adams painted many western scenes. But he is best remembered for his epic work, Custer's Last Fight, which he completed in 1885. His rendering of that famous battle at the Big Horn River in Montana eventually was obtained by the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company, which made thousands of reproductions for advertising and promotional purposes. Lithographs hung in taverns across the nation. " ( The lithograph can even be seen in the movie, "The Gunfighter"1950, starring Gregory Peck. The large painting on the wall behind Gregory Peck's chair in a bar room scene is "Custer's Last Fight". ) "
"Anheuser-Busch then produced a lithographic print of the painting and in 1896 gave prints to their distributors, bars, and other outlets. Through its display, it became widely known to diverse audiences. Born in Zanesville, Ohio, Adams was the son of William Apthorp Adams, a lawyer who traced his ancestry back to the John Adams family of Boston. The elder Adams was an amateur artist. At an early age, young Adams was interested in art. He studied at the Boston Academy of Arts, under Thomas S. Noble, and later at the Cincinnati Art School. He served in the army during the Civil War and was wounded while aboard the U.S.S. Osage at the Battle of Vicksburg."
"Late in the 1870s, Adams moved to St. Louis where he found work as an artist and engraver. Custer's Last Fight took one year to complete. As models he used actual Sioux Indians in battle dress and cavalrymen in uniforms of the period. The painting, which measured approx. 9 1/2 feet by 16 1/2 feet, was produced for two members of the St. Louis Arts Club, who exhibited the historical canvas around the country charging a fifty-cent admission fee. The two promoters did not realize the profit they wanted from the venture, so they sold the painting to a St. Louis saloonkeeper who hung it in his barroom. When the saloon went bankrupt the painting was acquired by one of its creditors, Anheuser-Busch Company. At the time it was valued at $10,000. The brewery gave the painting to the 7th Calvary; it was destroyed in a fire at Ft. Bliss, Texas in 1946."
Adams is a relatively unknown artist as most of his illustrations were for books for which the publishers did not provide credit to him for the work. He died at Trader's Point, Indiana in 1921.
