FREDERIC S. REMINGTON

Frederic Sackrider Remington was an American painter, illustrator and sculptor who depicted the American West. He was born October 4, 1861 in Canton, New York to Seth Pierrepont Remington and Clara Bascom Sackrider. Remington graduated from Highland Military Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts in the fall of 1876. For awhile he attended Yale as an art student. When his father died in 1880, he returned home and took a position as a clerk.

Remington met his future wife, Eva Adele Caten, at a county fair in Canton, New York. He requested her hand in marriage but her father rejected his proposal because of his financial instability. Remington decided to go west to seek his fortune. He traveled through the Dakotas, Wyoming, Kansas and Montana spending time with cowboys, ranchers and outlaws. After a few months, Remington returned home with a portfolio of sketches. Harper’s Weekly published one of his drawing in the February 25, 1881 issue.

In the fall of 1882, he headed west again and purchased a sheep ranch in Peabody, Kansas with the money he received from his father’s estate. It was not a successful venture and Remington sold it in 1884. He spent some time wandering the Southwest ending up in Kansas City where he purchased a saloon, which was also unsuccessful. In 1884, he finally returned to New York where he convinced Eva’s father to allow them to marry. They returned to Kansas City but the frontier life proved difficult for Eva who returned East to wait for her husband to make his fortune as an artist.

Remington returned to his wife in the summer of 1885 and never lived in the West again. Harper’s Weekly published his illustration, The Apache War, Indian Scouts in Geronimo’s Trail on the cover of the January 9, 1886, which helped establish Remington as an illustrator. Remington’s illustrations of western and military subjects were in great demand. His paintings were also attracting attention. He won two prizes at the National Academy of Design exhibition held in New York during 1888.

In 1892, Remington moved to New Rochelle, New York where he continued to illustrate magazine articles and books including Theodore Roosevelt’s book, Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail. Remington broke away from illustration and began sculpturing around 1895. His sculptures were of bronco busters, braves, cowboys and cavalrymen. In 1898, he went to Cuba as a war correspondent and illustrator. Disillusioned with war, Remington retreated to his New York home. In 1908, he made his last trip West. In December 1909, Remington died at the age of 48 after an emergency appendectomy.

In his lifetime, Remington produced over 3000 drawings and paintings, 22 bronze sculptures, a novel, a Broadway play and over 100 articles and stories. He immortalized the Western experience and popular image of the West. President Theodore Roosevelt paid tribute to Remington saying “The solider, the cowboy and rancher, the Indian, the horses and cattle of the plains, will live in his pictures and bronzes, I verily believe, for all times.”