In the summer of 1881, a nineteen-year-old easterner
named Frederic Remington journeyed to the heart of the Wild West,
fulfilling a childhood dream. Yet even as he marveled at the beauty of the
American frontier, he realized the land of his dreams was quickly fading
away."I knew the railroad was coming," he later wrote. "I
saw men already swarming into the land…I knew the wild riders and the vacant land
were about to vanish forever – and the more I considered the subject the bigger the
forever loomed. Without knowing exactly how to do it, I began to try to record some facts
around me, and the more I looked the more the panorama unfolded."
In the years that followed, Remington translated his observations
into art, memorializing the fading frontier as only he could. As an illustrator for
Harper’s Weekly magazine, he recorded scenes of Western drama and adventure for
enthusiastic readers across America. As his talents grew, he created masterful paintings
alive with color and detail. When he turned to sculpting, he took conventional methods of
depicting the horse and rider and turned them literally on their head.
Remington was a master of authentic detail. Pourtney Bigelow, editor
of Outing Magazine, proclaimed his art "the real thing" and his subjects
"the men of the real rodeo, parched in alkali dust, blinking out from barely opened
eyes under the furious rays of the Arizona sun."
In addition to his paintings and sculptures, Remington continued to
provide pen and ink illustrations for books dealing with the frontier and, with writings
like "Pony Tracks," established himself also as a talented Western author in his
own right.
In 1909, at age 48 and at the height of his abilities and
popularity, Frederic Remington died shortly after an appendicitis operation. He left as
his legacy nearly 3,000 works of art that continue to delight millions of people around
the world. Two years before the artist’s death, Theodore Roosevelt wrote that through
Remington’s efforts, the lost era of the American West would endure forever. "The
soldier, the cowboy and rancher," he wrote, "the Indian, the horses and
cattle of the plains, will live in his pictures and bronzes, I verily believe, for all
time."
With the Frederic Remington Art Museum Tribute, we honor one of
America’s favorite and best-known Western artists and the only museum dedicated
solely to his works – The Frederic Remington Art Museum.
Located in Ogdensburg, New York, not far from the artist’s
birthplace, the Frederic Remington Art Museum houses 77 major oil paintings, sixteen
bronze sculptures and many watercolors and drawings. Preserved in the Museum’s
archives are Remington’s Native American artifacts, notes, diary, photographs, and
other belongings.
Back to the Frederic Remington Art Museum Tribute
