The Wild West Has Disapppeared, but the History Lives On
“I knew the wild riders and the vacant land were about to vanish foreverâÂ?¦and the more I considered the subject, the bigger the forever loomed. Without knowing how to do it, I began to record some facts around me, and themore I looked the more the panorama unfolded (J.P. Artists Biographies-Remington 1)”. The work of this eclectic artist is one of the focuses of the Whitney Gallery of Western Art.
The Whitney Gallery is one of four museums located in one building at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming. It features a series of themes that perpetuate the spirit of the old Wild, Wild West. This gallery includes a large collection of the masterworks of Frederic Remington. A complete reconstruction of his studio gives one the opportunity to see the work environment in which Remington wove his storytelling magic, also allows one to see the process of Remington’s creations as well as learning about the man himself. “Buffalo Bill Historical Center 1”.
Frederic Sackrider Remington was born in Canton, New York on October 4, 1861. His father was an officer in the Civil War when Remington was a child. The stories told by his father and others fueled his passion for the outdoors, horses and any idea with a western theme (Richardson 1). Making a decision not to become a bookkeeper at the age of seventeen, he spent eighteen months of study at the School of Art at Yale beginning in 1878 and then three months at New York City’s Art Students League in the spring of 1886 (Ballinger 12).
Remington’s dream was to become a famous artist. The physical demands of the American Frontier posed not problem to the overly active, physical, passionate and aggressive young man. From 1882 until his death, he traveled to the West many times in search of material for his art works. The early years found him drawing illustrations for Harper’s Weekly magazine. The first drawings were unrefined, and Harper’s had them redrawn by staff artists before being printed. With practice, he become very adept at illustrating and later, sculpting. Even with this success, Remington never lost the passion to become a famous painter and continued working to the day of his death on December 26, 1909 toward that goal (Ballinger 12).
While he continued living in New York, he maintained contact with his friends in the U. S. Calvary who helped him assemble a veritable collection of photographs and artifacts that he then used in his studio. His works produced during this time were a recording of the images he had seen or experienced during his many trips to the west and “is notable for its rendering of swift action and its accuracy of detail in depicting Indians, cowboys, soldiers, horses,” and other aspects of the western arena (Remington Frederic 1). The January 1997 issue of the Indianapolis Star describes Remington as the quintessential Western Artist. ” His images of cowhandsâÂ?¦ mountain men and Indians are American classics” (Berry 1). A Remington painting that really speaks to one’s heart of the true American Indian is the Apache Medicine Song done in oil on canvas in 1908.
Apache Medicine Song reveals the mood of the Indian people. Using a Sac and Fox Indian named as a model, Remington uses Apache Medicine Song to recall at least three campfire scenes that he either witnessed or participated in during the late 1880’s and 1890’s. He described in his diary, ” a strange concert full of strange discordant sounds and shrill yelps in which half naked forms huddled with uplifted faces in a small circle around a tom tom” (Nemerov 9).
Theodore Roosevelt offered his praise to Remington saying, “He has portrayed a most characteristic and yet vanishing type of American life. Our country owes a great deal of gratitude to Mr. Frederic Remington for his dedication in representing the accurate portrayal of our Frontier heritage, from the most savage conflict to the vast quiet of the American wilderness” (J.P. Artists Biographies 1). His dream of becoming a famous artist was fulfilled. Our lives are richer for experiencing his creations of art in depicting the old Wild, Wild West.
