In September 2005, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis formally dedicated its new Gund Gallery of Western Art. Built as part of the museum’s Mel and Joan Perelman Wing, which opened in June 2005, the gallery showcases the collection of historic western art assembled by Cleveland businessman George Gund (1888-1966) and his family, and given by the family to the Eiteljorg in 2002. When the gift was announced, president and CEO John Vanausdall said that the acquisition of the collection, one of the largest single donations of art ever made to the museum, was “a defining moment in the Eiteljorg Museum’s history.”

The West that George Gund loved best was the West of the Horse, and the artists that he most admired were those devoted to portraying western horses. It has been said that Frederic Remington wanted his epitaph to read, “He knew the horse,” the supreme compliment that can be paid to a western artist. George Gund also “knew the horse,” and he trained his unerring eye on those artists who not only knew horses, but successfully portrayed them—whether wild bucking broncos and Indian ponies or cowboys’ and troopers’ trusty mounts—with flair and finesse.

It was Gund’s wish that, following his death, his remarkable collection would be shared with as wide a public as possible. In 1970, his children organized the collection as a traveling exhibition, adding several important works such as Charles Russell’s masterpiece, Crippled But Still Coming. Additionally, his son, George Gund III, contributed works from his private collection including Alfred Jacob Miller’s superb oil, Trappers En Route for the Rendezvous. During the two decades that it toured, the Gund Collection was seen in more than eighty locations by nearly two million people. In 1991, the collection finally came to rest at the Eiteljorg Museum, as a long-term loan. A decade later, it became part of the Eiteljorg’s permanent collection.