Frederic Remington

Early Artist of the American West.
Works of soldiers, cowboys, Indians, and trappers 
(1861-1909)

Remington's life was as full of action as his pictures.  Outdoor life and athletic sports were always a hobby for him. He was born at Canton, a little village in St. Lawrence County, New York State, in 1861. His father, a newspaper man, wanted to train him to follow the same profession; but Remington's taste for dabbing at art was too strong.

 In the Yale Art School he picked up a little about art and a great deal about football.(was on Walter Camp's original football team, when Camp was practically inventing the American game, and Remington assisted him.)
Being bored with college life, and having a menial clerks job, he threw it up and went out to Montana to "punch cows." Remington became a genuine cowboy, and four years in the saddle brought him the accurate knowledge of horses, Indians, cattle, and life on the plains that would later mark his work. 

After roughing it as a cowboy, Remington went to Kansas and started a mule ranch, made some money at it, then wandered South, taking a turn as a ranchman, scout, guide, and in fact anything offered. When his money was gone, his mind turned back to art. As he said, "Now that I was poor I could gratify my inclination for an artist's career. In art, to be conventional, one must start out penniless."  

So he made some drawings which the Harpers accepted. He got an order to go west and do illustrations for a series of articles on the life of the plains. He was lucky enough to strike in on an Indian campaign.  His success as an illustrator was so great that he never again lacked for profits from his art.  His sketches and paintings of soldiers, Indians, cowboys, and trappers were full of character, and came to be known far and wide both as illustrations and as independent works of art.

He sought after expression, in later years, in modeling sculpture with great success.  One of the best known of his sculptural works is "The Bronco Buster," which has long been a public favorite. The later years of Remington's life were spent in various trips and in quiet periods of work in his home studio at New Rochelle, New York.  He was also celebrated for his writing.  His descriptive powers were vivid and telling, and his stories, which fill several volumes, are full of living interest. Remington died very suddenly of pneumonia on December 26, 1909.  His place in American art is unique. There is no one quite like him.  His work was his life, and; his life was with strong primitive types of men and with animals, all of whom he loved.  The epitaph he wanted for himself was,
"He knew the Horse"