When Frederic Remington turned to sculpture in the mid-1890s, he did so with a subject that would come to define his legacy. As Michael D. Greenbaum notes in Icons of the West, Frederic Remington’s Sculpture: “It was the rugged frontier character who possessed an ‘unearthly wildness,’ yet a ‘distinct moral fiber,’ that Remington depicted in his first bronze subject, The Broncho Buster. Copyrighted October 1, 1895, the twenty-four-inch statuette of a cowboy ‘breaking in a wild horse’ was the first western action bronze of its kind, a frozen moment of nineteenth-century peril and drama. Remington supplied his poignant ‘wild rider’ with a whip, sharp spurs and an air of confidence.

“When completed The Broncho Buster was a technical triumph. The Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co. of New York produced the fine, smooth castings and the work was an immediate success with the public – a quintessential western image. Harper’s Weekly, the magazine that regularly published Remington’s illustrations and stories, ran a photograph and a favorable review on October 19, 1895. ‘Remington has stampeded, as it were, to … greater possibilities,’ wrote Arthur Hoeber. ‘He has struck his gait.’ The Broncho Buster quickly propelled the artist toward fame and the cowboy to the status of folk hero. The New York Times printed the following:

‘In point of fact, however, it is an initial effort, and certainly shows genuine taste and talent in that direction. Mr. Remington has long been known as a popular illustrator, whose work in the publications of the day has put him well in the front rank of the men who draw in pen and ink, and in this peculiar field he has been almost without a rival. Now that he has started in another direction, and begun so promisingly, his career will be remarked with still greater interest and subsequent work of this kind will be watched for eagerly.’

“Travels to the West had provided a number of ‘frontier types’ that Remington portrayed in ink and oil. ‘With me,’ he had written before modeling The Broncho Buster, ‘cowboys are what gems and porcelains are to some others.’ The artist observed the cowmen’s long hours, the western round-ups – at the time termed rodeos, and the peculiar gait of the men who inhabited the open range. He wrote, ‘They walk as though they expected at every moment to sit down … but let them get a foot in a stirrup and a grasp on the horn of a saddle, and a dynamic cartridge alone could expel them from their seat.

“The Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co. produced sixty-four largely identical sand castings of the bronze between 1895 and 1900. The foundry’s consistently superior quality meant each casting was as poignant and dramatic as the model Remington originally fashioned. As much as The Broncho Buster was a keen study in balance and technique, it was also an accomplishment in detail. A brand on the horse’s left hind quarter, a triangle inside a circle, appears on all castings, and the cowboy’s quirt is perpendicular to the base. The horse’s eyes are hollow and the rider’s right stirrup loose. All the castings in the edition were assembled from ten individually cast pieces, which the foundrymen brazed, filed and hand finished. The castings were then finished in a rich, light brown patina.”

PROVENANCE
Edward Morrell and Louise Bouvier Drexel Morrell, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1939 [or] 1945
Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1970
Adam A. Weschler and Son Galleries, Washington D.C., 1970
Estate of James A. Ruppe, Houghton, Michigan

LITERATURE
Harold McCracken, Frederic Remington: Artist of the Old West, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1947, plate 41, example illustrated
Harold McCracken, The Frederic Remington Book, Doubleday, 1966, p. 255, example illustrated
Peter H. Hassrick, Frederic Remington: Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture in the Amon Carter Museum and the Sid W. Richardson Foundation Collections, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1973, pp. 180-81, example illustrated
Patricia Janice Broder, Bronzes of the American West, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1974, pp. 131-34, example illustrated
Bruce Wear, The 2nd Bronze World of Frederic Remington, Ranch Publishing, 1976, pp. 56-57, example illustrated
Michael Edward Shapiro, Cast and Recast: The Sculpture of Frederic Remington, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981, p. 91, illustrated
Michael Edward Shapiro, Frederic Remington: The Masterworks, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1988, pp. 172-75, 233, back cover, example illustrated
James K. Ballinger, Frederic Remington, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1989, p. 74, example illustrated
Michael D. Greenbaum, Icons of the West, Frederic Remington’s Sculpture, Frederic Remington Art Museum, 1996, cover, pp. 29, 47, 51-64, example illustrated
Peter H. Hassrick, Frederick Remington: A Catalogue Raisonné, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, 2016, vol. II, pp. 57-59, 121, 123, 125, 160-61, 171, example illustrated

• Frederic Remington’s Past Results

Important Notice: Statements of condition are provided as a service to potential bidders and reflect educated opinions, not facts. All painting frames are sold “as is.” The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions.