Scenes of western life are depicted among the quiet landscapes, period and contemporary. These are the works that depict the west in a harsher, somewhat more realistic style-- paintings such as "Meat's Not Meat Till It's in the Pan" by Charles Russell and Frederic Remington's "Stampede" that show the tougher aspects of settling in the Western frontier--hunting, killing, and carrying your own dinner across treacherous mountain passes, the hard work in driving rain on a cattle ranch.
Remington's "The Missing" depicts the capture of a white soldier by Native Americans, led by a rope around his neck. The frontier life was dangerous, treacherous and filled with toil, endured by soldiers, families, cowboys and Native Americans alike.
William R. Leigh's "Panning For Gold" exemplifies pioneers' labors against the forces of nature. I also really dug his impasto techniques here.
In Remington's sculptures, and memorabilia from Wild West shows, cowboys are almost deified, masters of four-legged creatures, impervious to the elements, heroic and free.
Beth,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Eric and I am producing a film about cattle drives for a nonprofit museum in Cuero Texas. For the film I am looking for a hi-res photocopy of Frederic Remington's Stampede by Lightening (a painting in the public domain) and I see you have taken a very nice photo of it. May I have your permission to use your photo of this painting in my film? I would be happy to give you a special thanks at the end of the film. If you are agreeable, I would ask you to upload to a dropbox or some other delivery system for large files. my email eawil@rocketmail.com