Fredric Remington was born in Canton, New York October 4, 1861. He was brought up during the Civil War, his boyhood passions consisted of riding, boating, fishing, hunting, the military and the great outdoors. During school he enjoyed sketching and doodling different objects especially soldiers in military uniforms.
Category: Western
Howard Terpning is one of the most lauded painters of Western art. Over his lifetime he’s received the highest awards in the field, including the National Academy of Western Art’s Prix de West, the Hubbard Art Award for Excellence, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Autry National Center, and 2005 Masters of the American West Thomas Moran Memorial Award and countless others. He’s an Emeritus member of the Cowboy Artists of America with over forty-one awards from that organization alone. Quite simply, he’s a living master of Western art.
Charles M. Russell – Montana’s most famous artist, and, along with Frederic Remington, one of the two most famous artists ever to paint the West – was born in St. Louis, Missouri on March 19, 1864. He came to Montana in 1880, at the age of 16, just four years after Custer’s fatal last stand at the Little Big Horn.
The evolution of the cowboy boot dates back to the time of the America Civil War. In fact, many boots from the 1860’s are indistinguishable from those issued to the military. These boots were plain and utilitarian with low heels and squared-off toes. In early boots, it is impossible to determine the left foot boot from the right.
Spurs originally were brought to the New World by Spanish settlers in the 16th century. The modern period of spurs lasted from about 1860 to 1910. During this period the Mexican spur contained many interesting design elements mixing silver and iron to create figural, as well as geometric, works of art. They were typically large and heavy and were sometimes adorned with semi-precious stones such as rubies and emeralds.
Cowboy Culture
Texas was Mexico before it was Texas. Spanish settlers brought horses and cattle to Mexico some 400 years ago. In Spain, cattle were not allowed to roam free because space was limited. However, in the vastness of the New World, they were set free to graze and reproduce.
Round-hoof’d, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long, broad breast, full eye,
small head and nostril wide, high crest, short ears, straight legs and passing
strong, thin mane, thick mane, broad buttock, tender hide: look, what a horse
should have he did mot lack, save a proud rider on so proud a back.
Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
Nothing is more marvelous than sitting at a little table in the gathering dusk in the Piazza di San Marco, the guest of the six golden-bronze horses prancing away-to paradise. Then you know you are in the presence of the most immaculately beautiful creatures on the earth.