"Frederic Remington At The Met"
Exhibits Showcases Paintings, Sculptures, And Works On Paper
Frederic Sackrider Remington was just 20 years old when he undertook his first trip to the western states and territories in 1881. His earliest published sketch - of a Wyoming cowboy - was printed in the eminent pictorial magazine Harpers Weekly the following year. Over the next quarter century, Remingtons illustrations appeared in 41 periodicals; he illustrated books by such noted authors as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Owen Wister, and Theodore Roosevelt, and he wrote and illustrated his own books and articles. In addition, during the Spanish-American War, Remington served as a foreign correspondent in Cuba, producing not only writings, but illustrations and paintings.
Having attained early recognition for his talent as an illustrator, Remington nonetheless still sought - and during the 1890s gained - critical and commercial recognition as a painter. After the turn of the 20th century, he produced evocative paintings that experimented with impressionistic brushwork and light effects, as evident in On the Southern Plains, presented to The Met in 1911. An informal introduction to the basics of clay modeling led Remington to create some of the most memorable sculptural depictions of the American West, beginning in 1895 with his first effort, The Broncho Buster, a cowboy astride a bucking horse. Delighting in experimentation, Remington accomplished seemingly impossible technical feats and textural effects in his bronze statuettes, which were eagerly collected both during and after his lifetime.
The exhibition is made possible by the William Cullen Bryant Fellows, and organized by Thayer Tolles, the Marica F. Vilcek curator of American painting and sculpture, The American Wing.
Additional paintings and sculpture by Remington are on view in the permanent-collection installation, The West, 1860-1920, in The Joan Whitney Payson Galleries, Gallery 765, located on the American Wings second floor.