Remington, Frederic
Frederic (1861-1909), an American artist. He was born at Canton, New York. He was educated in the common schools and at the Yale Art School. He began life for himself as clerk in an express office. Accounts of Western life attracted him to save money and go West, where he turned cowboy on a cattle ranch and took his turn in breaking bronchos and rounding up cattle. Remington studied the West with ardor and intelligence. He painted the desert, the Indian, the stage coach, the mountains, the cowboy, the miner, as he saw them and as he himself interpreted them. Mr. Remington first made drawings with pencil and later took up painting and sculpture. He contributed numerous illustrated articles to periodicals and even wrote a Western novel, John Ermine of the Yellowstone (1902). Earlier volumes were Pony Tracks, Crooked Trails, and Frontier Sketches. During the Spanish-American War, Remington turned aside to execute Cuban subjects, but his fame will be handed down to posterity as that of a singularly modest man who left a lifelike original record of a picturesque phase of American life and who was a master of the brilliant coloring, the lonesome distance, and the vast, uplifting influence of the Western plain and mountain. It is quite possible that the future may accord Remington first place among distinctively American artists.
He has made us see at every stage this inferior race (the Indian) which our conquering race has dispossessed beginning with its primeval grandeur, and ending with its squalid degeneration under the influence of our civilized manners. Next, while recording the red man in this way, Remington has recorded the white man who encountered him,--recorded this man also in every stage from dignity to sordid squalor. Pioneers, trappers, cowboys, miners, prospectors, gamblers, bandits,--the whole motley rout goes ineffaceably into Remington's pages. And, finally, he has not forgotten Nature herself. The mystery of the untouched plains and the awe of the unsealed mountain heights have been set down by him not only truthfully, but with potent feeling and imagination. Remington is not merely an artist; he is a national treasure. And if ever it should occur to the not always discerning minds of academic institutions that Remington should be crowned at their hands, I should like to hear him receive his degree in these words: "Frederic Remington, Draftsman, Historian, Poet."--Owen Wister, in Collier's.
How true Remington's portrayal of all this is can only be appreciated by those who, like him, have lived the life of the plains, seen the wonderful lights and shadows, existed in the marvelous plains atmosphere, seen the mountains and canyons of that country, and known its people under the excitement of the strenuous life of the border, hunted and camped with the Indian and cow boys, marched with troops under the varying conditions of peace and Indian war. . . . Remington! The name fills our vision with a great sweep of Western country, troops in action, Indians, plainsmen,--all with the strong passions of life stamped on their faces pass in review, responsive to the magic of the master's name.--Major-General Leonard Wood, in Collier's.