James Earle Fraser
(1876 - 1953)
End of the Trail, 1915, 1967
bronze, edition 17
inscribed at base: FRASER #17 / SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY

The original plasters for these sculptures were bequeathed to Syracuse University by Laura Gardin Fraser, the widow of James Earle Fraser. Her Estate authorized limited castings to be made from these original plasters.
James Earle Fraser worked as an assistant to Augustus Saint-Gaudens on the Sherman Monument (1892 - 1903), for the Grand Army Plaza in New York. His sculptural entries in major early twentieth century expositions, such as the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, and the 1939 New York World’s Fair, earned him medals, as well as public and critical acclaim. The design of the Indian head and buffalo nickel for the United States Treasury in 1912, the figure of Theodore Roosevelt on horseback for the entry to the American Museum of Natural History, and numerous other public sculptures, including the Department of the Treasury, the Commerce Building, the National Archives, and the Supreme Court, in Washington D.C., are among the sculptor’s most notable public commissions. The sculptor was also one of the organizers of and contributors to the famous, avant-garde International Exhibition of Modern Art, known as the Armory Show, of 1913.

Fraser’s most acclaimed sculpture neither evokes his European academic training, nor the influence of the East Coast cities where he worked; End of the Trail is a romanticized and nostalgic image of the vanishing West. It is a powerful yet poetic work that is resoundingly clear in its sympathy to the subject matter.
While in Paris he had worked on the theme ( the plaster is now lost) and the work was awarded a gold medal in 1910. By the end of 1913, he had cemented his vision of “an Indian on a horse” and the work was accepted for the Pan Pacific exhibition which opened in February 1915 in San Francisco. End of the Trail was awarded the gold medal as the outstanding sculptural work at the fair. This monumental plaster, which measures eighteen feet high, (National Cowboy Hall of Fame, Oklahoma City) was subsequently cast for sites in public parks, in Wisconsin and California. This image was so popular that the artist issued reductions in various sizes and all were cast at the Roman Bronze works foundry. Fraser at his death bequeathed all of his models and archives to the Syracuse University and they were permitted by the Estate to cast posthumous bronzes from the artist’s original plasters.
12 1/2 x 3 1/2 x 12 in. (31.8 x 8.9 x 30.5 cm.)
Comparative Literature:
Dean Krakel, End of the Trail: The Odyssey of a Statue, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 1973.
Martin H. Bush, James Earle Fraser: American Sculptor, Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, 1969.
Alfred T. Colette and Donald M. Lantzy (exhibition catalogue essay), James Earle Fraser: The American Heritage in Sculpture, The Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, January 12-April 21, 1985.