Frederic Remington Biography | Oil Paintings

Frederic Remington was a cousin to Eliphalet Remington, founder of the Remington Arms Company. Through another relation in the family, Frederic Remington is related to General George Washington.

His father wanted him to attend West Point, but, being a poor student, particularly in math, he had slim hopes, though he did like making drawings of soldiers and cowboys at an early age. Frederic Sackrider Remington attended the art school at Yale University, which had recently opened, Remington was the only student studying under John Henry Niemeyer. He also lacked concentration at school, as he found that football and boxing were more interesting than formal art training. And in 1879 at the age of eighteen, he left school.

Living off his inheritance and modest work income, Remington refused to go back to art school and instead spent time camping and enjoying himself, at nineteen, he made his first trip west, going to Montana, buying a ranch, but after less than a year, he sold his ranch and returned home.

Frederic Remington continued sketching and drawing, but they were still cartoonish and amateur looking. After acquiring more capital from his mother, he this time went to Kansas City and used his money to become a silent, half-owner of a saloon. The business was doing badly, and Remington needed money to survive, so he started to sketch and paint, and bartered his sketches for essential goods.

With enough practice, he soon had enough success selling his paintings to the locals and thought he could do this as a real profession. Remington returned home again, his inheritance gone but his confidence in his new art career secured, he reunited with his wife and moved to Brooklyn. Realizing he still needed to improve, he attended the Art Students League of New York.

At age twenty-nine in 1890, he had his first one-man show with twenty-one paintings at the American Art Galleries and was very well received. With success all but assured, Frederic Sackrider Remington became established in society. His nice personality, his fake cowboy speaking manner, and "Wild West" stories were strong novel social attractions.

Remington's popularity and fame made him a favorite of the Army officers out west, fighting the last Indian battles. He was invited to make their portraits in the field and to gain them national exposure through Remington's articles and illustrations for Harper's Weekly magazine.

Frederic Sackrider Remington was the most successful artist in the "Golden Age" of American Western Art at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the Twentieth Century, so much so that the other Western artists such as Charles Russell and Charles Schreyvogel were known during Remington's life as members of the "School of Remington". Remington, as well as the other western artists, took artistic liberties in his depictions of what they painted, and for the sake of his readers' and publishers' interest. Frederic Remington also invented cowboy sculptures. From his inaugural piece, The Broncho Buster, he created an art form that is still very popular among collectors of Western Art.

Art Movement: American Western Art, Nocturne, Tonalism.
Artists Influencing Frederic Sackrider Remington: John Henry Niemeyer.
He Traveled To Mexico, Cuba.
Painters Frederic Remington Influenced: Charles Russell, Charles Schreyvogel.
Artist Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.