SELF-PORTRAIT ON A HORSE BY FREDERIC REMINGTON
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Frederic Remington Self-Portrait On A Horse c. 1890 Oil on canvas 29 3/16 inches x 19 3/8 inches |
| In paint and prose Remington paid enduring tribute to his ideal, the wasp-waisted officers and men of the U. S. Army. However, he realized that not being a professional soldier was what permitted him to romanticize the soldier's calling. When he came to paint himself into the West he was immortalizing, it was as a cowboy. Although he never worked as one, he claimed to know " that gentlemen to his character's end." Asked about the audience for his art, Remington replied in 1903 "Boys--boys between twelve and seventy..." Here, in his only full-fledged self-portrait, we have a boy of nearly thirty, dressed up as a cowboy on a white horse under one of those skies that are not cloudy all day. The angle is heroic. Horse and rider tower over the viewer, who has no choice but to gaze up at them. Youthful fantasies, that smug face tells us, can be realized. |