Colonel C. E. S. Wood

After serving in the 21st Infantry Regiment during the Nez Percé War in 1877, Charles Erskine Scott Wood (1852-1944) became a crusader for Native American rights and eventually settled in Portland, Oregon. Wood met Warner about 1883 while he was studying law at Columbia University and became a major patron of for the last decade of Warner’s career. In 1886, through Wood’s auspices, the sculptor was awarded the commission for the Skidmore Fountain in Portland (installed 1888). Warner executed this relief portrait of Wood in 1891, during the last of his three visits to Portland. It is likely that the medallion was not a commission but rather a token of thanks to Wood for making the arrangements for Warner to model a series of portraits of Native Americans from the Columbia River region (06.314-.320). The boldly modeled profile portrait is accompanied by a personalized inscription “to my friend C. E. S. Wood.”