The American West first captivated European fair-goers when William 'Buffalo Bill' Cody took his famous Wild West Show to the Paris exposition universelle in 1889. The show's novelty inspired such artists as Gardet, Austrian artist Carl Kauba and fellow painter/sculptor Rosa Bonheur, who met Buffalo Bill in Paris, though she and others never step in America. Bonheur, an animalier like Gardet, created a series of works and studies of American Buffalo, including a her Emigration des bisons, sold Christie's, Paris, 20 March 2024, lot 123. Kauba, whose depictions of indigenous Americans were lauded for the accuracy of their traditional clothing and textiles, corresponded with American artists who would return samples of traditional fringes and cloth for his modeling.