Lot 1181: F. Otto Becker (1854-1945) for Anheuser-Busch, Inc. Fine American and European Furniture, Silver, Folk and Decorative Arts and Clocks

Custer's Last Fight. circa 1896 Chromolithograph Published by Anheuser-Busch, Inc. sight approximately 15 1/4 x 25 1/4in (38.7 x 64.1cm)

38.7 x 64.1cm

The battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 was a defining moment in Indian-White relations. Out of the extraordinary number and variety of visual responses to the originating event, one emerged as a cult image: a lithograph by F. Otto Becker (1896) based on a painting by Cassily Adams (ca. 1885). Custer's Last Fight was purchased by the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association in 1888. The image as modified by Becker was then distributed in print form in eighteen editions to bars and taverns throughout the United States for over seventy years. Distribution of the print ceased in the 1970s, due in part to both the disenchantment of "dying with your boots on" that was caused by the Vietnam War, as well as the growth of the Indian rights movement.