Although artist Frederic Remington had the look of an eastern lawyer or banker, on the inside he was a cowboy who could shoot and ride with the best. 

 

Remington was born in New York and went to college at Yale, where his size made him a powerhouse on the football field. Majoring in art, he found the structured classes boring. When Remington was 19 his father died, and Remington dropped out of school.

 

He wasn’t a lady’s man. As a matter of fact, he only painted a picture of one woman, and he destroyed that. But Remington was smitten by an Eva Caten. Denied permission to date her, a dejected Remington went to Montana. His first taste of the open spaces, and the wild, free life, changed him. 

 

While sitting around a campfire on the Yellowstone River he realized that within a few years the west he was experiencing would no longer exist, and he understood the need to chronicle it.

 

Remington spent time in Kansas City, roping and branding during the day, and painting at night. He spent his free time in bars swapping stories with cowboys. Later he headed to the Southwest where he met Comanche, Apache and Mexican vaqueros.

 

His experiences weren’t all pleasant. He failed at sheep ranching, got cheated out of a part ownership of a saloon, and searched fruitlessly for a mystical mine.

 

After countless rejections by publishers, finally on February 26, 1882 Harper’s Weekly published his first illustration. He then sold his entire portfolio to Outing Magazine.

 

Frederick Remington moved from illustrating, to painting, bronzes and stories, all depicting the authentic west. Although he only lived 48 years, the 2,500 paintings and drawings, 25 bronzes, and thousands of words produced by Remington preserves an important time in American history.