Edwin Willard Deming

Wild Geese

Edwin Willard Deming, born in Ashland, Ohio on 26 August 1860, dedicated his life to the artistic preservation of American Indian culture. Primarily a painter, he was also a muralist, illustrator and sculptor of Indian and animal subjects. His family moved to Western Illinois while he was a boy, so he probably would not be classified as an Ohio painter. Reportedly, Deming grew up with Indian playmates. As a teenager, he traveled even further West, by train and stagecoach to Indian territory, to sketch the inhabitants. His parents sent Deming to Chicago to study business law, but he was set on becoming an artist. Therefore, he sold most of his possessions to get money for a trip to New York City and enrolled at the Art Students League. This was followed by a year in Paris at the Académie Julian.

Back in the United States, Deming began to paint cycloramas for a living (1885–87). Then in 1887, he made the first of many trips to the Southwest to paint the Apache and Pueblo. He then traveled to Oregon to paint the Umatilla and on a later trip, he lived for a year with the Indians, learning their ways of life, their culture and their religion. It is said that no other painter knew more about the Native Americans than Deming. He won a medal at the St. Louis Universal Exposition in 1904 and between 1905–10, he made small bronze studies. Deming also exhibited at the National Academy of Design (1890–95), at the Pennsylvania Academy (1895, 1905, 1911), at the Corcoran biennial (1908) and the Art Institute of Chicago (1916). Also that year, he painted murals of Indian life for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. When the United States entered World War I, Deming, though then 57, volunteered and was commissioned as a captain. He was active in camouflage work and painted targets. After his return, he lived and worked in New York City until his death on 15th October 1942.