Jessica Crabtree

October 4, 1861: Birth of Western artist Frederic Sackrider Remington

The very name “Remington” conjures up images of the Old West (thanks in part to the gun manufacturer who shares the name). Frederic Remington’s sketches, paintings, and sculptures – like the set of a John Ford movie – have become an immortal part of the canon of Western mythology.

“A Dash for the Timber” (Images courtesy of frederic-remington.com)

Frederic Remington was born in New York on this date in 1861. As a young man he was free-spirited and athletic, with an easy-going nature that proved incompatible with his Ivy League education. After leaving school he made his first trip West to seek his fortune – despite the substantial means provided by his family.

He quickly discovered that the rugged Western lifestyle didn’t suit him; after squandering most of his inheritance on failed business ventures, he found himself for the first time in need of a dependable income, and decided to turn to his dabbling in art as a serious livelihood.

He soon realized the potential of capitalizing on the growing fascination with the “glory days” of the Old West – the same fad that would soon trigger the bonanzas of Wild West Shows and early silent films. Magazines like Harper’s hired him as a “Western correspondent,” eagerly feeding his sketches and pulp literature to a public hungry for the romance and adventure of the West. Art shows and exhibits followed, marketing Remington as a rugged “man of the West.”

The proceeds enabled him to live comfortably at his estate in New York – for contrary to his public persona, he preferred a refined and lavish lifestyle among his newly-built Eastern social circles. Ironically, it was Remington’s own glamorized misconceptions of the West, his misadventures as a “greenhorn,” and his indolent, get-rich-quick attitude that actually led to the launch of his popular career.

To his credit, he had successfully developed his raw and amateurish art hobby into a finely-tuned craft through extensive study, observation, and practice. In particular, he is still much admired for his accuracy in portraying the horses. During this period he developed his signature style and the loose, expansive style that became so closely associated with classic Western art.

Left: A highly idealized “Self-Portrait on a Horse”
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