Frederic Remington: A Biography

Peggy and Harold Samuels are art dealer with a special interest in Frederic Remington, whose general artistic theme was the American West. Together they edited Remington's COLLECTED WRITINGS and published THE COMPLETE PRINTS (the latter subsequent to this biography), so it only seems natural that they would attempt a biography of the artist. The result is an exhilarating and detailed portrait of the man and the artist. Remington was born in 1861 in upstate New York and studied art at Yale and the Art Students League in NYC. In 1880, he went out to the West for his health and began sketching western scenes and cowboys and Indians, which he sold first in Kansas City and then back East to magazines (especially HARPER'S WEEKLY). That magazine sent him all over the country. With his bride Eva, he spent two years in the West in the 1880s visiting military posts, Indian villages, and even traveling with the cavalry on campaigns. The illustrations and painting born of these trips (he returned to the West many times and covered the Spanish-American War as well) made him famous and wealthy. He also wrote books, mainly short story collections with western themes (PONY TRACKS was probably the best), but his success there never matched that as an artist. Late in his life he added sculpture to his oeuvre, producing two dozen pieces. He died of appendicitis at his estate in Connecticut in 1909. The book opens in January 1908, with Remington feeding many original paintings into a large bonfire in his backyard, work he no longer cared about. The Samuels believe that he was consciously making a break with his past and was about to go off in a new direction, ending his career as a commercial illustrator, craving a wish to be considered a "serious" painter of the Impressionist school. The Samuels focus heavily on Remington the artist in this biography, yet because of their judicial use of his diaries they are able to capture the man as well as the artist. It's a fascinating work on a multi-faceted man. Highly recommended.