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Hope Springs Eternal - Ghost Dancers - Native American Indians By Howard Terpning

Hope Springs Eternal - Ghost Dancers by Howard Terpning

When Howard Terpning's Hope Springs Eternal The Ghost Dance was unveiled at the 1987 Cowboy Artists of American show, it was instantly recognized as a modern masterpiece. The scale of the 60 x 44 original provided the perfect platform to showcase the artist s prowess with light, composition, balance and structure. At such a large size, the emotion and humanity spills out from his painting. It won both Cowboy Artists of America Oil Painting Gold Award and the Western Art Associates Best of Show Award.

This Anniversary Museum Edition Gilcée Canvas presents the most authentic reproduction possible of Terpning's epic painting. At 56″ x 39″ it captures all the oversize power and glory of Terpning's original masterpiece and presents to us the closest opportunity to own the original as we will ever have.

The 1876 defeat of Custer's 7th Cavalry at Little Big Horn proved to be a Pyrrhic one for the Sioux and the Cheyenne as well as the Plains Indian culture. From that point on, it became a priority for the U.S. government to establish unquestioned control of the West.

The entire Plains Indian way of life came under attack with the intent to destroy it. Bison were no longer hunted for their hides, they were simply slaughtered. By 1881, most tribes had been hunted, harried and driven onto the harsh, unproductive lands sets aside as reservations. Confined, malnourished and stripped of their freedom and dignity, the suffocation of the Plains Indians and their culture was underway.

In 1889, a Paiute medicine man, while suffering a high fever, had a vision. In it, he journeyed to the after world and saw that those who had died in the past were living a happy life. He was told that through dance his people could regain the old ways that had been taken from them. The dance would resurrect the dead, bring back the buffalo and cause the white man to disappear. That his vision occurred during a solar eclipse only added to its significance.

The Ghost Dance swept the Plains like a wildfire and was embraced like a religion. The promise of a return to the life they had lost was a powerful intoxicant. As tribe after tribe entered the movement the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Shoshone, Comanche and Sioux the U.S. government became more and more concerned.

The dancers wore loose shirts and dresses that were adorned with feathers, fringe and symbols of the moon and stars. They moved in a counter-clockwise direction to the rhythm of drums, chants and songs. Handfuls of dirt were hefted into the air to symbolize the burial of the white man. As they danced some would fall into trances where they claimed to communicate with the dead. It was believed that the Ghost Shirts and Dresses they wore would be impervious to the soldiers bullets.

The Ghost Dance soon emboldened bands of Indians to leave their reservations and return to their old way of life. That was the beginning of the final end. The army hunted down those that left the reservations; leaders such as Sitting Bull were killed and finally, the violence culminated on December 29, 1890 with the massacre at Wounded Knee.

This work of raw spiritual emotion is one of Terpning's most powerful tributes to the Plains Indian way of life. It is simply one of the finest works of art you could ever hope to possess.

Hope Springs Eternal - Ghost Dancers by Howard Terpning was published in March of 1988 as a signed and numbered limited edition art print with a 26-1/4 x 37 image size priced for sale at $___ unframed.

Canvas - Hope Springs Eternal - Ghost Dancers by Howard Terpning was published in June of 2014 as a signed and numbered limited edition giclee canvas with a larger 39 x 56 image size priced for sale at $3,250 unframed. LAST ONE!

We are a full service custom frame shop and can build a design to meet any style or budget. Order yours today. All artwork is professionally boxed and insured and guaranteed to arrive in mint condition. All artwork has been hand signed by the artist.

If your interested in framing please send us an email to discuss the options. If you type the name FRAME on the search box above you can browse through some examples of our materials and designs. A painting by American Indian Artist Howard Terpning painted a large gathering of first people dancing and singing at a pow wow in high quality First People artwork and giclee canvas fine art prints for sale.

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