THE LUCKLESS HUNTER BY FREDERIC REMINGTON
 |
Frederic Remington The Luckless Hunter 1909 Oil on canvas 26 7/8 inches x 28 7/8 inches |
| After witnessing the reality of the Spanish-American War, Remington could no longer glamorize combat as he once had. Much of his youthful exuberance had vanished, replaced by a growing sense of loss over the Wild West that had once nurtured his artistry and was now a fading memory. Embracing the old West with renewed passion, he, who had been a master of action, a storyteller in line and paint, became a student of mood, and some of his paintings were infused with a brooding intensity. Contemporaries recognized this new direction in The Luckless Hunter with its obvious air of despair. Rather than being conquered by the Cavalry in combat on a sun-drenched battlefield, the Indian is shown reduced to helplessness by hunger. The night air is brittle, the sky speckled with frozen stars, the snow-covered landscape as barren as the moon that washes it in pale light. There is nothing left to sustain the will to resist, or even to go on. |