Off the Range (Coming Through the Rye) by Fredric Remington
Off the Range (Coming Through the Rye) by Fredric Remington
Frederic Sackrider Remington (October 4, 1861 – December 26, 1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United States in the last quarter of the 19th century and featuring such images as cowboys, American Indians, and the US Cavalry. Remington was a cousin of Eliphalet Remington, founder of the Remington Arms Company, which is considered America's oldest gunmaker. He was also related to three famous mountain men: Jedediah Smith, Jonathan T. Warner, and Robert "Doc" Newell. Through the Warner side of his family, Remington was related to George Washington, the first US president.
This virtuosic sculpture depicts four cowboys astride their galloping horses "shooting pistols and shouting," as Frederic Remington wrote, suggesting the bravado and energy that characterized the frontier way of life. One look at the horsemen reveals that they are not attacking or escaping from enemies, however, but rather immersed in drunken revelry. Remington wrote of the cowboy: "When he ‘turns loose' in town [he] does it in a thorough way. His animation vents itself in shrieks and yells, the firing of the revolver, and the mad gallop."
