The War Party

Edgar Paxson ranks among notable frontier artists Frederic Remington and Charles Russell as one of the important painters of the vanishing West. He moved to Montana from New York in 1877, immersing himself in life on the frontier through a series of odd jobs until turning to commercial painting in 1879. By the late 1890s, Paxson completed his masterpiece Custer's Last Stand in the collection of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, which was widely exhibited and garnered national recognition. Upon Paxon's death, Charles M. Russell wrote "Paxson has gone, but his pictures will not allow us to forget him. The iron heel of civilization has stamped out nations of men, but it has never been able to wipe out pictures, and Paxson was one of the men gifted to make them." (R. Stewart, The American West: Legendary Artists of the Frontier, Dallas, Texas, 1986, p. 82)