Subject: dog soldier
Culture: Cheyenne
Setting: Plains Wars, Great Plains 19thc
* Amon Carter Museum
"Frederic Remington (1861-1909) Ridden Down, 1905-06 Oil on canvas ...
The year this painting was completed, Remington published The Way of the Indian, one of his most successful novels. The life story of a Cheyenne warrior, it chronicles the defeat of a people by the encroachment of white civilization. At the end of the story, the despairing warrior waits alone, hoping to be taken to the 'spirit-land.' In this painting, a lone warrior also waits for his destiny. His gasping, sweat-lathered horse has been ridden to exhaustion, and his bow and empty quiver lie useless at his feet. As his pursuers close in from the desert flats below, the viewer is left to ponder the outcome. 'Big art is the process of elimination,' Remington told an interviewer the following year. 'Cut down and out -- do your hardest work outside the picture, and let your audience take away something to think about -- to imagine.'"
* Amon Carter Museum
"Frederic Remington (1861-1909) The Cheyenne Bronze, design copyrighted 1901 ...
The Cheyenne was one of the first subjects produced by the Roman Bronze Works using the lost-wax casting process. In general the casts made during Remington's lifetime have the highest degree of finish and surface detail. It is particularly interesting to note the changes that Remington himself made in the work as time went on; note the difference in the placement of the shield on the Indian's back in cast numbers 6 and 20. Feathers were also added to the shield in the later version. Another change can be seen on cast number 20 in the horse's right rear fetlock, which became straightened, and thus less accurate. The artist made other changes in some of the details, possibly to simplify the finishing process."
