Lot Essay
Toward the end of the 1800s, Frederic Remington was becoming more passionate about easel painting, and he was also becoming increasingly interested in shaking the sobriquet of "illustrator". Ironically, it was a contract with Collier's magazine that gave him his largest assistance in achieving this goal.
In April of 1903, Collier's agreed to publish a minimum of twelve Remington canvases each year in full color, for which he would be paid $1,000 for each work. The artist was to have total control of his subjects, and the paintings would be illustrated in color without accompanying any articles, and therefore without limits to content nor subject. This release from the constrictions of black and white illustration allowed Remington to focus on one of his chief strengths as an artist; his keen interest and unique facility for rendering the play of light and color- the chief tenants of the impressionistic movement.
In the next six years, until his untimely and somewhat premature death in 1909, Remington created a great many large and beautiful canvases using this technique. To say that Remington completely abandoned his past work would be short sighted, for although he displayed a new and freer palette in these years, he remained focused on his interest in the West and the everyday struggles of life on the frontier.
A Cold Morning on the Range, circa 1904, depicts one such encounter with a young cowboy involved in a seemingly life threatening struggle against an unwilling mount. The theme of bronco busting was an obvious fascination for Remington. There are several related works in oil, including Turn Him Loose Bill (Anschutz Collection, Denver, Colorado) and Blandy, both of the 1890s. The present painting also pays homage to Remington's earliest and most popular work in bronze, The Bronco Buster which was copyrighted in 1895.
In this oil, the energy and excitement of the moment and the thrill of the dangerous episode are the central theme which makes it comparable to the artist's earlier work. It marks a departure from earlier images, however, in that the light and color, the beautiful blue sky and the vibrant yellow landscape now empower the painting.
By 1907, when Remington exhibited a group of canvases from the early 1900s, at the Knoedler Gallery in New York, the critical acclaim and excitement about his new painting technique were swelling. In a 1910 article on Remington for Scribner's Magazine, the well known critic of the day Royal Cortissoz remarked: "Under the burning sun he has worked out an impressionism of his own. Baked dusty plains lead in his pictures to bare, flattopped hills, shaded from yellow into violet beneath cloudless skies which hold no soft tints of pearl and rose, but are fiercely blue when they do not vibrate into tones of green." (R. Cortissoz, "Frederic Remington: A Painter of American Life", Scribner's Magazine, February 1910, p. 192)
It is true that Remington developed and mastered his own unique style of Impressionism, but it is also important to acknowledge that he came into contact and yearned for acceptance from Childe Hassam and other members of the Ten. In fact, Hassam and Remington became acquainted at their periodic meetings of the Players Club, an association and meeting place for all members of the arts in New York.
After seeing one of Remington's annual exhibitions at the Knoedler Gallery, Childe Hassam, the most respected American Impressionist, wrote Remington an encouraging letter applauding his progress and new direction in painting. This was a high honor and Remington remarked that Hassam's note was among his most treasured compliments.
To the day he died, Remington remained his most difficult critic and most reluctant aficionado, but by 1909, even Remington himself could not ignore the success of his development into one of the finest easel painters in America. Finally, the title of illustrator was wearing off, and Remington could be remembered for the marvelous impressionistic portrayals of frontier life that he completed in this last, most important period of his career.
"The art critics have all 'come down' -- I have belated but splendid notices from all the papers. They ungrudgingly give me a high place as a 'mere painter'. I have been on their trail a long while and they never surrendered while they had a leg to stand on. The 'illustrator' phrase has become background." (excerpt from Remington's diary, December 9, 1909)
This work is scheduled for inclusion in the Buffalo Bill Historical Center's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's flat works.
In April of 1903, Collier's agreed to publish a minimum of twelve Remington canvases each year in full color, for which he would be paid $1,000 for each work. The artist was to have total control of his subjects, and the paintings would be illustrated in color without accompanying any articles, and therefore without limits to content nor subject. This release from the constrictions of black and white illustration allowed Remington to focus on one of his chief strengths as an artist; his keen interest and unique facility for rendering the play of light and color- the chief tenants of the impressionistic movement.
In the next six years, until his untimely and somewhat premature death in 1909, Remington created a great many large and beautiful canvases using this technique. To say that Remington completely abandoned his past work would be short sighted, for although he displayed a new and freer palette in these years, he remained focused on his interest in the West and the everyday struggles of life on the frontier.
A Cold Morning on the Range, circa 1904, depicts one such encounter with a young cowboy involved in a seemingly life threatening struggle against an unwilling mount. The theme of bronco busting was an obvious fascination for Remington. There are several related works in oil, including Turn Him Loose Bill (Anschutz Collection, Denver, Colorado) and Blandy, both of the 1890s. The present painting also pays homage to Remington's earliest and most popular work in bronze, The Bronco Buster which was copyrighted in 1895.
In this oil, the energy and excitement of the moment and the thrill of the dangerous episode are the central theme which makes it comparable to the artist's earlier work. It marks a departure from earlier images, however, in that the light and color, the beautiful blue sky and the vibrant yellow landscape now empower the painting.
By 1907, when Remington exhibited a group of canvases from the early 1900s, at the Knoedler Gallery in New York, the critical acclaim and excitement about his new painting technique were swelling. In a 1910 article on Remington for Scribner's Magazine, the well known critic of the day Royal Cortissoz remarked: "Under the burning sun he has worked out an impressionism of his own. Baked dusty plains lead in his pictures to bare, flattopped hills, shaded from yellow into violet beneath cloudless skies which hold no soft tints of pearl and rose, but are fiercely blue when they do not vibrate into tones of green." (R. Cortissoz, "Frederic Remington: A Painter of American Life", Scribner's Magazine, February 1910, p. 192)
It is true that Remington developed and mastered his own unique style of Impressionism, but it is also important to acknowledge that he came into contact and yearned for acceptance from Childe Hassam and other members of the Ten. In fact, Hassam and Remington became acquainted at their periodic meetings of the Players Club, an association and meeting place for all members of the arts in New York.
After seeing one of Remington's annual exhibitions at the Knoedler Gallery, Childe Hassam, the most respected American Impressionist, wrote Remington an encouraging letter applauding his progress and new direction in painting. This was a high honor and Remington remarked that Hassam's note was among his most treasured compliments.
To the day he died, Remington remained his most difficult critic and most reluctant aficionado, but by 1909, even Remington himself could not ignore the success of his development into one of the finest easel painters in America. Finally, the title of illustrator was wearing off, and Remington could be remembered for the marvelous impressionistic portrayals of frontier life that he completed in this last, most important period of his career.
"The art critics have all 'come down' -- I have belated but splendid notices from all the papers. They ungrudgingly give me a high place as a 'mere painter'. I have been on their trail a long while and they never surrendered while they had a leg to stand on. The 'illustrator' phrase has become background." (excerpt from Remington's diary, December 9, 1909)
This work is scheduled for inclusion in the Buffalo Bill Historical Center's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's flat works.