Frederic Remington

Frederic Remington (1861-1909), American painter, sculptor, and writer, born in Canton, New York, and educated at the Art Students League, New York City. Remington is famous for the lively scenes, in paint and in bronze, of the Old West that form the subject matter of most of his works. In the Spanish-American War he served as a war correspondent and artist. Among his paintings, admired for their forthright and unsentimental naturalism, are The Outlier (1909, Brooklyn Museum, New York City) and Cavalry Charge on the Southern Plains (1907, Metropolitan Museum, New York City). In 1895 Remington began to make clay models of his rugged subjects, which were subsequently cast in bronze. His first, Bronco Buster (1895, one casting in New York Historical Society, New York City) displays the vigor and sense of movement of his paintings. His subsequent bronzes, such as Comin' Through the Rye (1902, Metropolitan Museum), in which four cowhands on horseback charge at the observer in glee, are daring for their technical skill in suspending large figures on slim supports—in this case on the hooves of the horses. Among the books he wrote and illustrated are Pony Tracks (1895), Crooked Trails (1898), and The Way of an Indian (1906).