Pitched It Sheer into the River . . . Where It Still Is Seen in the Summer

Pitched It Sheer into the River . . . Where It Still Is Seen in the Summer

Frederic Remington

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 1888 Remington was commissioned to illustrate The Song of Hiawatha, the epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, for a deluxe edition published in 1891. By then a sophisticated practitioner of the grisaille technique, Remington executed twenty-two black-and-white oil paintings, one for each of the poem’s cantos. This depiction accompanies canto 6, which describes Hiawatha’s two closest friends: Chibiabos, the musician, and Kwasind, the strong man. The jagged boulder in the river alludes to one of Kwasind’s feats of strength. Taunted with accusations of laziness, he threw a huge rock into the Pauwating River, where it remained visible above the waterline during the summer months.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pitched It Sheer into the River . . . Where It Still Is Seen in the SummerPitched It Sheer into the River . . . Where It Still Is Seen in the SummerPitched It Sheer into the River . . . Where It Still Is Seen in the SummerPitched It Sheer into the River . . . Where It Still Is Seen in the SummerPitched It Sheer into the River . . . Where It Still Is Seen in the Summer

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.