One of Frederic Remington’s masterpieces, this painting depicts cowboys hiding in a waterhole, their source of survival in the arid desert and of protection from the pursuing Plains Indians. The manipulated perspective gives the scene a panoramic quality and introduces a large shadow to convey the idea of “passing”—the ever-present threat of death looming in the Western territories during the Indian Wars, as well as the passing of the West itself.

https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/45626/fight-for-the-waterhole