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Frederic
Remington Biography
Frederic
Remington (1861-1909) Frederic Sackrider Remington was a very significant
artist, skilled as a writer and lauded as an illustrator, painter
and sculptor. His subtle and powerful work made him the premier chronicler
of the late nineteenth century American West. The son of a newspaper
publisher, Remington was born in Canton, New York in 1861. He began
sketching as a boy. After attending a Massachusetts military academy
from 1876 to 1878, he entered the newly formed Yale University Art
School in New Haven, Connecticut. His father's death in 1880 induced
him to leave school and briefly take on clerical work in Albany, New
York. During a short journey West in 1881, Remington received a glimpse
of the life and land that would influence and inspire the rest of
his life. The trip, consisting of sketching, prospecting and cow punching
from Montana to Texas, resulted in his first published illustration
in Harper's weekly in 1882. In 1883, he bought a sheep ranch in Kansas,
which served as a home base for more trips throughout the Southwest,
where he sketched horses, cavalrymen, cowboys and Indians. Remington
sold the ranch in 1884, and established a studio in Kansas City, Missouri.
Returning to New York City in 1885, Remington quickly became a successful
illustrator, his work appearing in many publications. He began writing
and illustrating his own books and articles as well, giving Eastern
America what became the accepted vision of the American West. Wanting
greater acceptance as a fine artist, he studied at the Art Students
League in New York City for a few months in 1886. Remington began
submitting his paintings to exhibitions, but his illustrations remained
the primary source of his remarkable reputation. Remington did start
winning prizes for his paintings in the early 1890s. His work consisted
of visual narratives of the old West, with landscape secondary to
the figure. In 1895, Remington produced his first bronze sculpture:
The Bronco Buster (a cast in the Metropolitan Museum of Art), which
immediately became popular and was followed by 24 other bronzes. His
ability to exhibit a strong sense of life and movement in a three
dimensional work was recognized. After moving to a farm in Connecticut,
where he established an art gallery and library surrounded by collected
Western memorabilia and artifacts, Remington began to experiment with
a kind of impressionism around 1905. Many American artists were attracted
to the style during that period, but Remington never really ceased
to be a realist. Remington died in Ridgefield, Connecticut in 1909
after a sudden attack of appendicitis, leaving a legacy of more than
2,750 paintings and drawings and 25 sculptures from which multiple
casts were made. In addition, he had written eight books and numerous
articles about the American West, and served in the Spanish-American
War as a war correspondent. He was the most important artist ever
to record the vanishing Western frontier.
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