Remington and Charles M. Russell, along with Henry
Farny and Charles Schreyvogel, were among a group
of artists called upon to satisfy an insatiable
public appetite for all things Western. Easterners
who would never experience the West firsthand
couldn't get enough of their images of cowboys,
which were widely reproduced in magazines and books.
Peter Hassrick describes this painting: "It shows
a cowboy on a bucking horse dominating nature, taming
nature, taming the horse, taming the American West,
which the American nation had done." Remington was a
hit in the publishing world; His first-hand observations of
the West, the authenticity of his drawings, and the
crude energy of his work spoke to magazine editors
who quickly realized the enormous appeal his images
would have. His popularity notwithstanding, Remington—
who was educated at Yale—was a highly trained fine
artist with a deep knowledge of current art trends.
Here, for example, while the cowboy draws your eye, the
background reveals Remington's attraction to Impressionism,
a school of painting pioneered in France. Kim Wiggins:
"When you look at this brush work, when you look at
the landscape, his use of color, the application of
paint, you see the reason that he's called an American
Impressionist of the West."
Below and to the right you'll find the Cinch Ring
by Charles Russell. Unlike Remington, Russell was not
formally trained, but his experience of working as a cowboy
is evident in this painting. "Russell had an incredible ability
to paint motion, to paint action. He was an artist
that painted what he knew. Many of the scenes that
you see are actual things that happened, or that
were told to Russell when he would be sitting around
the campfire and visiting with his friends."
Charles Schreyvogel, considered one of the finest
interpreters of the West. He specialized in accurate and
detailed depictions of the American cavalry defending and
protecting the frontier during the post-Civil
War-era, he often elevated otherwise anonymous
men to heroic stature. You can see that in the painting
of the mounted trooper in the water, In Safe Hands.
The trooper is a self portrait of the artist. He is simultaneously
grasping the reins and saving an imperiled child
with one hand while fending off the enemy with the
other. The model for the blond toddler was the artist's
daughter Ruth, who burst into tears when she discovered
that her father had painted her with red stockings,
which she hated. It's a touching picture that captures
the pathos of a father saving his daughter. Schreyvogel
discovered the West in, of all places, Brooklyn, New
York, where he saw Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West traveling
show with its Indian encampment. Characters like
the kind he encountered in the show are featured
in his large painting to the bottom right, Silenced
War Whoop. Schreyvogel worked at the same time as artists
like Frederic Remington, Charles Russell and Henry
Farny, whose works hang across the gallery. In fact,
the famous Remington was one of his artistic rivals,
and challenged him about the accuracy of his depictions.
Artist Kim Wiggins: "Schreyvogel was at an unveiling of one of his very
important historical pieces. And right in the middle of the unveiling, Remington
commented on the boots that one of the soldiers had
on. And he said, 'Nobody wore boots like this.' Schreyvogel
simply turned around and he said, 'General So-and-so?
Are these the boots you loaned me for this painting
or not?' And the old General looked at him and he says,
'Absolutely, that's why I gave 'em to ya, I wore those
all the time. You did a great job.' "