ACHIEVEMENTS

The flavor of the old West has nowhere been more successfully captured than in the works of Frederic Remington.  His legacy of nearly 3,000 oil paintings, watercolors, drawings and 22 bronzes easily establish him as the foremost artist of the early West, capturing forever the quickly disappearing life of cowboys, cavalry soldiers, horses and native Americans.

Very few illustrators go on to gain fame as museum artists, making Remington unique.  He also wrote about the west in numerous articles, where he literally painted the sights and experiences he observed with his pen.  His accounts had the solid ring of reality to them, providing an authentic picture of classic ranch life.

Remington dressed as a cowboy and used “range lingo” to prove his drawings were authentic because he had “been thar.”  He was full of stories, largely embellished, of working as a rancher, prospector, Indian scout, and cowpuncher.  He campaigned with troops, including the 10th Cavalry Buffalo soldiers, and later in Cuba during the Spanish-American war.  All of these experiences found their way into his art and stories.

Compared to fellow western artist Charles Russell, Remington’s work was frequently less exact in detail, being more primarily interested in capturing live action.  He gave a masterly portrayal of horses, the first artist to depict the horse in action.  Fascinated by their motion, he took many photos of them with the newly invented box camera.  His paintings depicting horses with all four feet off the ground brought criticism and ridicule, but photography proved his depiction to be correct.  One critic wrote described his horses as wild, lithe, flexible, and alive.”

Though his early work was unpolished, it had the unmistakable ring of truth, with a raw power applied to human figures and horses applied with the reality of observation.  Remington’s work signaled the end of the Victorian era of romantic illustration.

Illustrating for several popular magazines of the day, including Harper’s, Collier’s, Outing, Youth’s Companion, and Century, he illustrated a series in the latter written by a young Theodore Roosevelt.  So overwhelmingly successful was his illustrative art, other well-known artists of his day were known as “of the School of Remington”.

He also illustrated a number of books, including Solomon Buckley Griffin’s Mexico of Today, Owen Wister’s The Virginian and Done in the Open, a reissue of Longfellow’s Hiawatha, and Frances Parkman’s novel, Oregon Trail.

Previously the press had tried to play down the wilder aspects of the West to encourage European investments and settlement, but now, with news stories such as Custer’s Last Stand, the public was hungry for illustrations of the “real West.”

Taking up serious writing, he produced excellent short stories and novels with a flavor of the West and an understanding of its characters that are individual and unique.  His book, The Way of an Indian, is a sympathetic and deeply probing study. Among his other books were Pony Tracks, Crooked Trails, Frontier Sketches, and John Ermine of the Yellowstone. 

Remington accompanied General Nelson Miles’ 1890 expedition as a correspondent, into the Dakota Badlands to repress the Sioux uprising under Chief Sitting Bull.  His account of the Battle of Wounded Knee is still well known today.

Sent to Cuba in 1898 by the Hearst Syndicate and Harper’s, he witnessed the battle of San Juan Hill, capturing it in the celebrated painting of Teddy Roosevelt leading his Rough Riders into battle.  Teddy acclaimed Remington as the greatest of American artists.

Remington’s work was regularly exhibited and sold in numerous galleries, beginning with the Academy of Art in New York City in 1893.  His early paintings reflected romantic realism with strong details; later paintings showed an emerging Impressionism, encouraged by artist friends like Childe Hassam.  In 1903 he began work for Collier’s as an artist under contract, leaving him free to choose his own subjects.

Among his better known paintings are “The Last Stand”, depicting a cow with her calf in the snow surrounded by wolves, based on drawing made on rough brown wrapping paper while living in Butler County, “A Dash for the Timber” painted in 1889, acknowledged as his first masterpiece, “The Cheyenne Scout” and “Texas Cattle in a Kansas Corn Corral”.

While living in New Rochelle, Remington was neighbor to Frederic W. Ruckstull, a successful sculptor.  In 1895 Remington, with some prodding from Ruckstull, gave shape to his own first sculpture, “The Bronco Buster,” based on an earlier painting.  Preliminary sketches used for this painting were drawn on his Kansas ranch, portraying Grand Scrivner on a spooked horse.  Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders presented a casting of this piece to him, becoming one of his most precious possessions.

Quickly mastering the medium, Remington thoroughly enjoyed what he termed his “mud” work, using the sand cast and later lost wax methods.  Other well known pieces include “Coming Through the Rye,” of which a plaster replica exhibited at the St. Louis World Fair in 1904, and “The Wounded Bunkie.”

Remington’s work both distorts our overall sense of the American frontier west and yet provides a rare and important insight into the experience.  With an unusual perspective, he records the struggles of the historic west as well as its gradual death as civilization became more fully entrenched.

AWARDS, RECOGNITION

In 1888, Remington won the Clarke and the Hallgarten prizes at the annual exhibition of the National Academy of Design.  He was awarded a silver medal in the art exhibit in the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889.

The entire March 18, 1905 issue of Collier’s Weekly was devoted to Remington’s works.  He was listed by E. Benezit in his Dictionary of Painters, Sculptors, Designers and Printmakers of All Times and All Countries as studied by French and Foreign Specialists.

On October 8, 1940, the U. S. Post Office issued a commemorative Frederic Remington stamp, one of their artist series, in the 10¢ denomination.

The Frederic Remington High School, east of Whitewater in Butler County, was dedicated on November 17, 1963, being named after the painter.  A bronze casting of “The Bronco Rider” sits in their courtyard and their athletic teams are called the Broncos.

Today Remington’s Ogdensburg home in New York has become a memorial museum, filled with some of his best paintings and sculpture, along with memorabilia of his colorful life.
 

BIBLIOGRAPHY / FURTHER READING

Lawrence P. Klintworth, True Tales of the Kingdom of Butler; BCHS, El Dorado, KS, 1981; pp 61-62

Family files, Clymer Research Library; BCHS, El Dorado, KS – ORIGINALS IN ARCHIVES

Walnut Valley Times, Jan. 11, 1884, pp 1; Dec. 31, 1909, pp 1

The El Dorado Times, Nov. 24, 1943, pp 12; Mar. 3, 1962, pp 1, 8; Apr. 3, 1987, pp 2; Oct. 6, 2006, pp 1

Subject files, Clymer Research Library, BCHS, El Dorado, KS

Peggy & Harold Samuels, Frederic Remington – A Biography; Doubleday & Co., NY, 1982

Robert Taft, The Pictorial Record of the Old West – V. Remington in Kansas; The Kansas Historical quarterly, Topeka, KS, 1948; pp 113-135

Inaugural Exhibition Catalog, Amon Carter Museum of Western Art; Fort Worth, TX, 1961

John C. Lehman, The Kansas Chautauqua Profiles; Emporia State University, 1988; pp 14-18

Dave Webb, 399 Kansas Characters; Kansas Heritage Center, Dodge City, KS, 1992; p 160-161

Jonathon Wesley Bell, Kansas Art Reader; University of Kansas; Lawrence, KS, 1976; pp 97

“The Bronco Buster”, BCHS Exhibition Card, BCHS, El Dorado, KS

www.askart.com

www.fredericremington.org

www.artchive.com

en.wikipedia.org

www.spanamwar.com

www.pbs.org

www.art.unt.edu

www.fineoldart.com

www.nga.gov