Mardon's "The Battle of the Greasy Grass"

[Diane Merkel]

Here's a little bit about the artist and the painting, "The Battle of Greasy Grass."

[Tucson artist Allan Mardon’s] most famous work, “The Battle of Greasy Grass,” depicts Gen. George Custer’s monumental loss in 1876 to the marshaled forces of the Cheyenne and Lakota Indians. Most would later come to know the battle, Custer’s legendary “last stand,” as the Battle of Little Bighorn in the eastern Montana territory. It was the Lakota who referred to the event as the Battle of Greasy Grass Creek.

Mardon’s huge 11.5-by-6.5-foot painting of the fight associated with the country’s taming of the West hangs in the Whitney Gallery of Western Art at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyo. The work took Mardon two years to complete — a year spent researching the battle and a year spent depicting it.

Article: www.explorernews.com/article/show/21879

[bubbabod]

Chuck and Dianne, I don't know if anyone's posted a picture of Mardon's painting, but just in case, here it is:

www.allanmardon.com/art/B0013.

I saw it at the museum in Cody about seven years ago and just couldn't help staring it and going over and over it. It's such a different technique, and if you study it closely, pretty accurate.

[bubbabod]

I'll try it again:

www.allanmardon.com/art/B0013.jpg

[Diane Merkel]

Thanks for posting that, Bubba. I remember it, too. It looks more like a pictograph than a "typical" painting.

[clw]

I'm going to try to visit the Cody museum on my next trip west. It looks like a great place to spend the day. I've been over there browsing their website with the feint hope of finding a print of the Mardon painting which I love. They have a print of the Paxson painting if anyone is interested, but not Mardon's. Too bad -- I think it's my favorite LBH interpretation.