Hermon Atkins MacNeil

George de Forest Brush, Chicago (acquired directly from the artist)

Louis Sullivan, Chicago

Arthur T. Alidis, Chicago

Private Collection (acquired by descent from the above)

Christie's New York, December 4, 1987, lot 154 (consigned by the above)

Wolf Family Collection No. 0916 (acquired from the above)

The Vow of Vengeance was Hermon Atkins MacNeil's first freestanding Native American sculpture and depicts a chief guiding a younger member of his tribe as he shoots an arrow into the air. According to the Art Institute of Chicago, who own the other known cast of this sculpture, "the individualistic modeling of the man suggests study from life" ("The Vow of Vengeance," accessed 5 April 2023).

The present work is one of two located casts of The Vow of Vengeance, both of which were originally purchased from the artist by Chicago collectors in the 1890s. The Wolf Family's example previously resided in the collection of Chicago-based real estate developer, Arthur Alidis, whose brother Owen had also commissioned the sculptor to cast four bronze reliefs for the Marquette Building in the Chicago business district (Andrew J. Walker, "The Aesthetics of Extinction: Art and Science in the Indian Sculptures of Hermon Atkins MacNeil, in Perspectives on American Sculpture before 1925, New York, 2003, p. 96). The other known cast resides in the Art Institute of Chicago's permanent collection.