New galleries emphasize Remington, Russell

A new gallery space dedicated to the works of Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell graces the mezzanine of the Amon Carter Museum – some 2,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit areas, serving as much to introduce these greatest of frontiersman-artists as to display their work.

Rick Stewart, senior curator of western paintings and sculpture, explains the development: “When the museum expanded in 2001, we gained additional space to exhibit our renowned collection. What we found was that our visitors wanted to know even more about Remington and Russell and their techniques.” Hence the dedicated space.

The galleries feature the self-taught artists’ oil paintings, watercolors and drawings. Nearly 100 works are on view, and the museum plans to rotate works at intervals. Interactive features include pull-out drawers with large works on paper and a computer workstation. An animation display depicts the lost-wax bronze-casting process utilized by both artists. Additional works by Remington can be viewed in the second-level paintings-and-sculpture galleries.

In addition to the interpretative galleries, the museum has launched a Web page at www.cartermuseum.org/remington-and-russell – a definitive online resource, and the next-best thing to being there. Every Carter-held work by the artists (about 400 objects) can be seen online. Exhaustive timelines are provided for each artist, as well, complete with hundreds of period photographs and significant events and dates in their lives. The site also includes biographies; comprehensive bibliographies; videos depicting the lost-wax sculptural process of making sculpture and presentations by Rick Stewart; and extensive teaching resources.

Teachers at any grade level can integrate the online lesson plans into the classroom. The materials meet state and national teaching standards in a variety of disciplines, including history, language arts and visual arts. In addition to lesson plans, the site provides educators access to bibliographies, Web links and materials from the Carter’s Teaching Resource Center.

The Remington-and-Russell interpretative galleries, Web site and education programs stem from a grant from the Jane & John Justin Foundation.

The artists scarcely need an introduction, but they should have one, anyhow: Frederic Remington (1861–1909), one of the most important and influential artists to portray the American West, was largely self-taught. He shares this quality, and a military-school background, in common with Charles M. Russell, although distinctions are as keen as shared values.

Remington was born in Canton, New York. After stints in two military schools, he enrolled in 1878 in the Yale School of Fine Arts. Following the death of his father, Remington dropped out after three semesters and rejoined his family. In 1881, he traveled to Montana Territory, where he made some sketches. His first illustration was published the following year in Harper’s Weekly.

In 1883, Remington moved to Kansas, where he attempted careers as a sheep rancher and saloon owner while pursuing his interest in art. Newly married and encouraged by the sale of some of his works, he relocated to New York City where, over the next few years, his reputation as an artist and illustrator of the American West was firmly established. Remington traveled extensively, often at the behest of Harper’s Weekly, making sketches and gathering information in a broad swath of the West that included Canada and Northern Mexico. He became the most prolific and influential artist–correspondent of the period. In 1895 he created his first bronze sculpture, which proved popular. By 1900 he was not only successful as a commercial illustrator but was enjoying a growing reputation as a serious artist of critical acclaim. Remington died from a ruptured appendix on Christmas Day, 1909.

Charles Marion Russell (1864–1926), from St. Louis, was the son of a manufacturer. In 1880, after briefly attending military school in New Jersey, Russell talked his parents into letting him travel to Montana Territory to work on a ranch. The following year, he began a two-year apprenticeship as a hunter and trapper, then landed a job as a night herder, working for various ranches in the open-range cattle industry. Throughout this period, Russell taught himself the rudiments of art. He sketched, modeled and painted, achieving a regional reputation as “The Cowboy Artist” and selling examples of his work. He exhibited his first oil painting in 1886 at St. Louis, and his first published illustration appeared two years later in Harper’s Weekly.

In 1893 Russell left the range to pursue art in earnest. In 1896, he married Nancy Cooper, who also became the artist’s manager. Russell made his first visit to New York City in 1903. Over the next 20 years, he executed a number of illustrations on commission and published original stories.

Since boyhood, he had modeled sculptures in painted wax and plaster. In 1904, while on a trip to New York, he created his first work in bronze. Solo exhibitions of his work in a number of cities, beginning in 1911, secured his reputation as a major artist of the American West. During the 1920s, his routine visits to California had a considerable influence on a rapidly growing motion-picture industry. Russell died of heart failure on Oct. 24, 1926.

Michael H. Price is the author and illustrator of the frontier-

heritage books The Cruel Plains (Zone Press; 2007) and The

Ancient Southwest (TCU Press; 2006). Contact: mprice@bizpress.net