Howard Terpning (b. 1927) – Army Mules No More (1981)

Howard Terpning (b. 1927) – Army Mules No More (1981):

Howard Terpning (b. 1927)
Army Mules No More (1981)
oil on canvas
30 × 50 inches
signed and dated lower left

VERSO
Signed and titled
Label, Cowboy Artists of America Museum, Kerrville, Texas
Label, The Owings Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

For generations, the Apache raided isolated Spanish and Mexican villages throughout the desert and mountains of the Southwest and Mexico. These raids were carried out by small parties of warriors who traded the plunder they took for weapons, food, and other necessities. However, the encroaching Americans proved more powerful and their quest for territory resulted in the Apache Wars from 1849 to 1886. The United States Army needed to use mules to carry supplies through the harsh and unyielding landscape during this series of armed conflicts. In Army Mules No More, Howard Terpning depicts a group of Apache warriors making off with captured mules, an event that just might slow down the pursuing American troops. It was a courageous struggle of hide and seek in this, the last of the American Indian Wars.

The artist wrote, “Although the Apaches lived primarily in Arizona and New Mexico, they ranged easily into the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico and considered Sonora and Chihuahua their own province. To them, both Americans and Mexicans were foreign invaders deserving of no quarter and as a general rule the Apaches offered none.”

PROVENANCE
Western Heritage Sale, Houston, Texas, 1981
Private collection, California

EXHIBITED
The Storytellers: The Narration Traditions in Western Art, Cowboy Artists of America Museum, Kerrville, Texas, 1992

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Condition
Surface is in excellent condition. Large spot of inpainting in sky, upper-left corner. Spot of inpainting in tree, top-center portion.