Frederic Remington

By Nancy J. Farrier

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In January 2015, I blogged about Western artist, Charles Marion Russell. While researching Russell’s story, I found that he was a contemporary of Frederic Remington, another well-known Western artist. I thought I would share Remington’s story with you this month. As we’ll see there were major differences between the two artists, even though there is some similarity in their work. Russell made a living as a cowboy and chose to live in the west for much of his life. Remington tried living in the west, and did get an understanding for the cowboy life, but chose to live back east instead of the more rugged West.

Frederic Remington was born in 1861 in Canton, New York. His father attended West Point and served as a Colonel in the Civil War. He had high hopes his only child, Frederic, would follow in his footsteps, but Frederic proved more interested in the arts than in math and other studies necessary to attend West Point. Instead, he practiced drawing cowboys and soldiers from an early age. As he grew older, he often drew caricatures of his classmates. When he attended Yale, his first published drawing was a cartoon of injured football player.

In 1879, he left Yale to care for his father who had contracted tuberculosis. After his father’s death, Remington worked a variety of small jobs at newspapers. He once told his uncle he didn’t aspire to fame, but would be content working as a journalist with a sideline in art.

At 19, after receiving an inheritance, Remington set out for the wilds of Montana. He considered buying a ranch, or going into mining until he realized his inheritance wouldn't cover the cost. While in the West, he did begin to understand the harsher elements and the nature of the cowboy’s work, something that showed up in his art work. Harper’s Weekly published Remington’s first commercial piece of art, a re-creation of a quick sketch he’d done on some wrapping paper.

After numerous ventures that either didn’t pan out, or weren’t what Remington wanted to do, he began to sketch and paint in an attempt to make a living with his art work. His earlier choice of sketching patrons of saloons hadn’t been favored by his wife and she left him. He continued to paint, reunited with his wife and moved back east. At this time, his technique was considered amateur and rough. Remington began studying at the Art Students League of New York. He began to submit sketches to Harper’s Weekly and Colliers. In 1886, at the age of 25, he received his first full page under his own name in Harper’s Weekly.

He traveled a lot to various places such as Arizona and Canada, but his big break came when he was commissioned to illustrate a book for Teddy Roosevelt. Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail would showcase 83 illustrations by Remington. The book was serialized in The Century Magazine before being published as a book. Remington’s credibility as a Western artist soared as the issues released.

Remington received many honors. In 1888, two of his paintings were chosen by the U. S. Postal to be reproduced on stamps. After being dropped by Harper’s Weekly, he wrote and illustrated books about the West. In 1898, he became a war correspondent for the Spanish-American War. At the end of the war, the Rough Riders presented Teddy Roosevelt with Remington’s bronze, The Bronco Buster. Remington declared this to be a great honor.

Throughout his life, Remington produced close to 3000 works of art, wrote 8 books and cast 25 bronzes, many of which are popular reproductions today.  His study on the horse in motion changed the way horses were depicted in art.

Frederic Remington died young at 48 years old, from complications of appendicitis.

Have you ever read any of Remington’s books? Do you prefer his paintings or his bronzes? Leave a comment below to be entered in the giveaway for a copy of my latest release, or for one of my other titles of your

choice.

8 Weddings and a Miracle - Weather the storms of life alongside nine modern couples who hope to make it to the altar—someday. Be it a meeting in the wrong place at the right time, an accident that opens hardened hearts, or weather that seems to blow things off course, sometimes love needs a little divine intervention. 8 Weddings and a Miracle includes my novella, Wall of Stone, a story set in contemporary England. 

 Nancy J Farrier is an award winning author who lives in Southern California in the Mojave Desert. She loves the Southwest with its interesting historical past. Nancy and her husband have five children and one grandson. When Nancy isn’t writing, she loves to read, do needlecraft, play with her cats, and spend time with her family. Nancy is represented by Karen Ball of The Steve Laube Literary Agency. You can read more about Nancy and her books on her website: nancyjfarrier.com.

Cowboys of the Wild East?

When I moved to Florida in the early 1980’s, the town I lived in consisted of a few main roads, a smattering of stores, a fair number of houses, all surrounded by lots and lots of cow pastures. It’s only thirty years later as I research the background for a possible new story that I recognize the depth of historical significance those cow pastures hold.
 

Statue of Juan Ponce de Leon, St. Augustine, FL
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory
 http://floridamemory.com/items/show/8049

Florida’s cattle history starts all the way back in 1521, when Juan Ponce de Leon set foot in Florida for the second time. He’d originally come in 1513 and claimed the land for Spain, but didn’t stay long. He returned in 1521 with 200 settlers, as well as horses, cattle, and pigs. But tensions between the Spaniards and the Native American tribes inhabiting Florida’s peninsula became hostile and fighting broke out. When Ponce de Leon was shot with an arrow, the would-be settlers quickly abandoned their animals and sailed for Cuba, where their leader died.

About 40 years later in the 1560’s, more Spanish arrived in Florida and managed to settle the land. The surviving horses, cattle, and pigs that had been left by Ponce de Leon’s crew years earlier had become wild, roaming free among the thick scrub covering Florida. The newly-arrived settlers brought more livestock, and by 1600, horses and cattle were prevalent among the Spanish missions and ranches that had come to Northern Florida. Spanish vaqueros worked the ranches, developing a strong cattle industry here.

In the 1760’s, Spain briefly lost control of the land to Britain, but regained it 20 years later at the end of the American Revolution. During that time, both the Seminole Indians and a restless group of British colonists moved into Florida. The whites were a wild bunch who tended to buck authority every chance they got. The Spanish governor in the 1780’s described them as “nomadic like Arabs,” and “distinguished from savages only in their color, language, and superiority of their depraved cunning and untrustworthiness.” They immediately took to the wild cattle roaming free in the Florida scrub, falling back on the traditions of their Celtic ancestry—free range cattle herding. They became known as “Crackers.”

Cow whip made by George Mills,
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory
http://floridamemory.com/items/show/108400
Photo by Robt. L. Stone

Today, we think of that term as derogatory and demeaning. It originally meant a braggart or boaster. But there was a dual meaning. In Florida, where the wiregrass and palmettos were so thick, it was impossible to use a lariat to rope cattle like those further west did. Instead, the Florida cow hunters (as they preferred to be called) used bullwhips that cracked like a gunshot in the air above the cattle they were herding. The sound could be heard for miles before the small herds were seen.

From the late 1700’s all the way through the end of the 1800’s, the Florida cow hunters ruled the scrub. They hit their heyday after the Civil War, just as the western cowboys did. They would sometimes drive their small, often scrawny cattle north into neighboring states to sell, but more often went south to the Fort Myers, Florida, area, where they’d load them on ships to sell in Cuba. They might not have to drive them as far as their western counterparts, but the work was every bit as hard. They worked with smaller herds, and rather than letting them roam free while on the trail, they would bed the cattle down in large corrals erected along their trail.

Artist and author Frederic Remington wrote an article for Harper’s Magazine in 1895 about these men, in which he painted a rather dark and dreary picture. He portrayed them as a sorry lot, unscrupulous and prone to violence and thievery. And some probably were. But so were some of the western cowboys Remington was more familiar with. Plenty of the Florida cow hunters were hardworking, honest men who took pride in their jobs.

Despite the often negative connotation of the “Cracker” name, the descendants of these historic Florida figures take great pride in their heritage and are fighting even today to keep that heritage alive with places like “Cracker Country” at the Florida State Fairgrounds, or the “1876 Cow Camp” at Lake Kissimmee State Park. I so appreciate these efforts as I research an upcoming story, but beyond that, just to learn one more fascinating tidbit of history from the state I’ve called home for most of my life.

So let's hear from you. What is the most interesting thing you’ve discovered about your local history? Leave me a messsage, and you'll be entered into the drawing for this quilled paper cross shadowbox, handmade by me, to be given away tomorrow. Also, you'll be entered in the $25 Amazon giftcard drawing, to be given at the end of the month. The giftcard is being given by several of the "surprise giveaway" authors this month, so check the sidebar and go back to leave messages on giveaway authors' posts to increase your chances for the giftcard.

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen, when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has won the 2012 CWOW Phoenix Rattler, 2012 ACFW First Impressions, and 2013 FCWC contests, all in the historical category. She is also the winner of the 2013 Central Florida ACFW chapter's "Prompt Response" contest. In addition to writing, she has been a schoolteacher of English, literature, and history, as well as a marketing director. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, teenaged son, and four fur children.