149

Cutting Out Pony Herds is listed as number 2852 in the Frederic Remington Catalogue Raisonné.

According to Harold McCracken, considered the world’s foremost authority on Remington and his work, “When Remington died on December 26, 1909, Collier’s had sixteen of his paintings that had not been used in the magazine, and they continued to be used until the issue of December 27, 1913–four years after the artist’s demise.” Cutting Out Pony Herds appeared on the front cover of the February 1, 1913 issue. “The subject of this picture was an incident that was practiced by the Army of the West, with which Remington was personally familiar. When attacking a renegade Indian camp the soldiers sometimes used a mounted trooper to ride close to the Indians’ herd of ponies, while firing his revolver into the air to stampede the horses away from the camp and put the Indians afoot and more vulnerable to the attack. This practice also motivated his creating the work of sculpture known as The Trooper of the Plains–one of his favorite subjects in bronze.”

The present owner of Cutting Out Pony Herds acquired it in 1979 from the Detroit Club, where it had resided for seven decades. At the time, McCracken called it “the most important sale of Western art this year.” To this day, the painting remains one of the most important works by Remington still in private hands.

PROVENANCE:
The Artist
The Detroit Club, Detroit, Michigan
Private Collection, Wyoming, 1979

EXHIBITIONS:
The Art of Frederic Remington: An Exhibition Honoring Harold McCracken, Whitney Gallery of Western Art, Cody, Wyoming

LITERATURE:
Collier’s Weekly (P. F. Collier & Son, February 1, 1913), front cover, illustrated (detail)
Harold McCracken, Frederic Remington, Artist of the Old West (New York, New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1947), pages 127 and Plate 32, illustrated
Don Hedgpeth, The Art of Frederic Remington: An Exhibition Honoring Harold McCracken (Cody, Wyoming: Whitney Gallery of Western Art, 1974), page 32, No. 28, illustrated [as A Stampede]
Michael D. Greenbaum, Icons of the West, Frederic Remington’s Sculpture (Ogdensburg, New York: Frederic Remington Art Museum, 1996), page 149, illustrated
Peter H. Hassrick and Melissa J. Webster, Frederic Remington A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings, Volume II (Cody, Wyoming: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, 1996), page 821, illustrated halftone

Condition ReportPainting has been lined, surface condition excellent, inpainting around edges, near and under rabbet, several specks of inpainting throughout sky and quarter by half inch spot of inpainting above riders stirrup, less than half inch by half inch spot of inpainting under stirrup, several spots of inpainting in foreground.

Important Notice: Statements of condition are provided as a service to potential bidders; such statements are educated opinions and should not be regarded as facts. The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction has no responsibility for any errors or omissions.