Frederic Remington Biography

Frederic Remington, spelled "Frederic" and not "Frederick Remington", was born in 1861. During his career as a western artist, Frederic Remington produced more than 2700 magazine drawings and paintings. His drawings and paintings, which depicted the progression of the frontier in a manner that were easily understood by the majority of Americans during the late 1800's, made Frederic Remington the most popular painter of the American West.

The paintings by Frederic Remington focused on people and events. Frederic Remington used the beauty of the western landscape only as a fuzzy backdrop to portray the events on the frontier. Virtually all Frederic Remington paintings and sketches show a subtle to almost unrecognized backdrop, and rarely are any of the landscapes defined.

The paintings by Frederic Remington, instead of showing the western landscape, instead focused on the events that occurred on the western frontier between 1880-1900. The paintings by Frederic Remington portray the life of cowboys, the battles between the US Calvary and the Indians as well as the settlement of the frontier by white immigrants from the east.

Frederic Remington first trip west, though, was not wasted. He submitted a sketch he created to Harper's Weekly that, after editing, was published in 1882, and marked the first piece of artwork to be published by Frederic Remington.

Numerous sketches of his early trips out west were printed in magazines, including Outing, The Century Magazine and Harper's Weekly. The drawings and sketches by Frederic Remington proved to be so well liked by the American public at that time that he became the most popular magazine illustrator by 1888.

During this time, Frederic Remington began to concentrate on his paintings, using his vast store of drawings, sketches and experiences from his previous trips west. The paintings by Frederic Remington focused almost exclusively on everyday people of the American West. His paintings showed the cowboys working on the ranches, the soldiers in the Calvary and the Indians of various tribes. The lack of landscape in most Frederic Remington paintings help highlight the people he depicted in his artwork. The lack of details in his paintings freed the picture of clutter and completely focused all attention on the people portrayed.

Overall, the artwork and paintings by Frederic Remington are less an accurate documentation of the settlement of the American frontier than they are a record of the how the American public at that time viewed the west. The heroic and rugged cowboys and solider portrayed in Frederic Remington paintings reflected the beliefs of the west held by the American public at that time. This, along with Frederic Remington's focus on ordinary cowboys and soliders in the west and his excellent painting technique, combined to make Frederic Remington the most popular western painter during the 1890's.

See All Paintings by Frederic Remington at ArtSelect

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