Frederic S. Remington

An influential painter and sculptor of the American West, Frederic S. Remington (1861–1909) grew up in New York State and received his artistic training at Yale College of Art and the Art Students League in New York City. He made his first trip to the western United States as a twenty-year-old vacationing in Montana. He lived for a few years in Kansas but returned to New York City in 1885 as an illustrator for Harper’s Weekly. He traveled to the American Southwest several times between 1885 and 1888, primarily to cover the U.S. cavalry and the Apache Indians. In A Dash for the Timber (1889), a classic Western battle ensues as the cowboys rush for cover. The painting appealed to the American public who felt nostalgic for a rapidly disappearing world of action and adventure in the so-called Wild West, and it launched Remington’s career as a major painter.