Appeal to the Great Spirit is a 1908 equestrian statue by Cyrus Dallin, located in front of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It portrays a Native American on horseback facing skyward, his arms spread wide in a spiritual request to the Great Spirit. It was the last in Dallin's four-piece series, The Epic of the Indian, which also includes A Signal of Peace, The Medicine Man, and Protest of the Sioux. A statuette of Appeal to the Great Spirit is in the permanent collection of the White House and was exhibited in President Bill Clinton's Oval Office.
History
A native of Utah, the young Dallin frequently interacted with Native American children, who gave him insights that he called upon while creating this and other works. The model who posed for the sculpture was Antonio Corsi, an Italian who modeled for several great painters and sculptors of the era. Appeal to the Great Spirit was cast in Paris, and won a gold medal for its exhibition in the Paris Salon. On January 23, 1912, it was installed outside the main entrance to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. A restoration of the Boston version was reversed at Dallin's request because he preferred the light green tones that had developed on the equestrian sculpture over time rather than the typical "statuary brown" patina the conservator applied without consulting him.
Smaller versions
An edition of nine 40-inch bronzes of Appeal to the Great Spirit was produced about 1922. One is the centerpiece of the Tower Room of Dartmouth College's Baker Tower, the college's main library and most iconic building. There is a full-scale model in Muncie, Indiana, in the intersection of Walnut and Granville streets in the Wysor Heights Historic District, and is considered by many residents to be a symbol of Muncie. A plaster example in this size is at the Cyrus Dallin Museum in Arlington, Massachusetts, and another is in the Rockwell Museum in Corning, New York. Central High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, possesses another plaster example, which was used, in 1985, as the model for a bronze version. The casting was done by American Artbronze Fine Arts Foundry under the direction of Howard R. Kirsch. The heroic-sized bronze is now installed in Woodward Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the intersection of 21st Street and Peoria. Examples of the 21-inch bronze statuette are at the White House, the U.S. Department of State, and many American museums. An 8-1/2-inch miniature edition was produced by the Gorham Manufacturing Company in 1913; in 2009, No. 263 sold for $9,375.
An early instance of the sculpture's place in American culture is its appearance on the cover of "A-M-E-R-I-C-A", a World War I song by May Greene and Billy Lang and published by D. W. Cooper.
The sculpture is used as the logo for the Beach Boys' vanity record labelBrother Records. It was first seen in the lower-left corner on the band's 1967 album Smiley Smile and its attending single "Heroes and Villains", and was used more prominently on the cover of their 1973 album The Beach Boys in Concert. When Beach Boy Carl Wilson was asked in 1975 why the group used this as their logo, he said the Indian was chosen because Brian, Dennis, and Carl's grandfather believed that there was a spiritual Indian "guide" who watched over them from the "other side." The choice of the logo was Brian's. Carl called the logo "The Last Horizon."
A painting of the sculpture appears on the cover of the album The Time Is Near by the rock group Keef Hartley Band.
A painting of the sculpture appears on the cover of the album Spirit of God by the Native American Gospel recording artist Johnny P. Curtis.
A painting of the sculpture appears on the cover of the album Lysol by rock group The Melvins.
In the vinyl release of Directions to See a Ghost by the American rock bandThe Black Angels, the poster inside features a skeleton form of this sculpture with a psychedelic background.
