The Sun Vow
Hermon Atkins MacNeil
Modeled 1898, cast 1901
Medium
Bronze
Dimensions
H.: 176.5 cm (69 1/2 in.)
Classification
sculpture
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
31672
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Sculptor Hermon Atkins MacNeil imagined a rite of manhood in this portrayal of a Native American elder guiding a boy as he shoots an arrow skyward. The pair follows its ascent until it is lost in the sun’s rays. It was through the distorted lens of ethnographic displays at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago as well as Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows that MacNeil’s interest in Indigenous cultures developed. He modeled The Sun Vow apart from any meaningful contact with Native peoples,...