REMINGTON IN OGDENSBURG

The Bronco Buster

Soldiers Faces based on Civil War Photographs

Coming through the Rye

Charge up San Juan Hill, Cuba

On the fringes of upstate NY is Ogdensburg, a port city on the St. Lawrence River, where Frederic Remington (1861-1909) spent part of his childhood.  En route to crossing into Canada, we visited the grand 19^th century mansion that houses the works of Frederic Remington, the American artist and sculptor. Remington’s widow, Eva, born in Glens Falls, NY, spent her later years in the mansion. The Newell family founded their company in Ogdensburg and later transformed it from manufacturing curtain rods to making Rubbermaid products and Cephalon.  In recent years, Newell descendants expanded the museum so it now displays Remington’s memorabilia, books, drawings, paintings and sculptures.

Remington grew up and felt very much at home in the north woods of NY state.

As a youth, he exhibited considerable artistic talent. However, due to pressing family demands, his years at the Yale School of Art were cut short as he returned to care for his ailing father. To earn a living, Remington found a niche in the market with his talent for sketching people.  As he became better known, he drew for Harper’s Weekly and illustrated books such as Owen Wister’s The Virginian, Bret Harte’s western stories, and a new edition of Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha.

Having spent time in the West, Remington was convinced that rustic frontier life built strong men. This view affected his vision of the American West as he immortalized scenes of the outdoor life and our nation’s westward expansion.  Rugged cowboys on horseback, U.S. cavalrymen galloping with their horses on the plains, Indians trying to preserve their customary lives  -- all were subject for his artistic eye. Remington is best known for his dynamic, tension-filled bronze sculptures depicting the American west ---  Coming Through the Rye, The Broncho Buster, and The Rattlesnake --  some captured on photos above.

Later in his life, he added color to his work and painted such scenes as the Charge Up San Juan Hill. Perhaps it was just a coincidence (or was it more?) that Frederic Remington had a striking resemblance to Teddy Roosevelt—with his expanded girth, mustache, vigor, love of the out of doors and of American expansionism.