Scoundrels, Cads, and Other Great Artists by Jeffrey K. Smith

Scoundrels, Cads, and Other Great Artists by Jeffrey K. Smith

Author:Jeffrey K. Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2020-08-20T00:00:00+00:00


REMINGTON

Figure 6.1. Photograph of Remington, 1888. Frederic Remington Art Museum, Ogdensburg, New York.

Courtesy Frederic Remington Art Mueseum, Ogdensburg, New York.

Figure 6.2. Self-Portrait, Frederic Remington, 1890. Sid Richardson Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.

Courtesy Sid Richardson Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

CHAPTER 6

Remington

THE COWBOY FROM NEW ROCHELLE

Frederic Sackrider Remington fancied himself a cowpoke. Dipping his toe into the water’s edge of the American West in the 1880s (Kansas City), Remington tried his hand at sheep farming, hardware selling, and saloon keeping. He failed miserably at all three. He neglected to tell his wife about the saloon escapade; when she discovered his deception, she packed up and returned to her parents in New York. Although he loved her dearly, it was the best thing that ever happened to him. Having wasted most of the inheritance from his father on these ventures, he took his remaining few dollars, bought a bedraggled horse, and took the advice of Horace Greeley to “Go West, young man.”1

With his business ineptitude running the gamut from livestock to libation, Remington focused his efforts on something he was actually good at: drawing. He briefly traveled about the Southwest and discovered that he could earn a living selling renderings of cowboys, cavalry, and Native Americans. Returning to the East Coast, Remington reconnected with his wife and started a career as an illustrator and storyteller of the Wild West for Harper’s Weekly, Outing, and Century Illustrated Magazine. Soon he had enough money to buy a big house in New Rochelle, New York, where he would live most of the rest of his life.

There was no question in the mind of Frederic Remington that he was the roughest, toughest cowboy (painter) this side of the Rio Hudson. All you had to do was ask. He most assuredly had the rootin’ and tootin’ aspects of the old frontier down pat, but whether he actually ever poked a cow in his life . . . is in serious question.



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