Educational
ca. 1896–98
American
oil on canvas
United States
Unframed: 27 1/4 × 40 in. (69.22 × 101.6 cm)
Framed: 48 1/2 × 35 3/8 × 3 1/4 in. (123.19 × 89.85 × 8.26 cm)
76.20.1

This energetic painting of a military exercise observed by Frederic Remington depicts a line of the advancing US 9th Cavalry—an African American regiment known as “Buffalo Soldiers.” In an 1898 magazine article about this experience that featured a reproduction of this painting, the artist wrote, “A man on a horse is a vigorous, forceful thing to look at. It embodies the liveliness of nature in its most attractive form, especially when a gun and sabre are attached.” Poised atop his galloping mount, a keen-eyed solider reins the horse as their two synchronized bodies rapidly charge across the broad, barren landscape. In both painting and sculpture, Remington demonstrated his facility at depicting the dynamism of a horse and rider in motion.

signed at lower right: "Frederic Remington"
below signature lower right: "Copyright 1898 by Harpers Weekly"
Gift of the Estate of Sally D. Eddy
"Frederic Remington, the Masterworks," St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, 1988; Buffelo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY, June 17-September 5, 1988; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX, October 15, 1988-January 8, 1989.

"Five Years of Collecting," Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, March 25-May 4, 1980.

"Art of the American West," Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Artmobile, September 1977 - December 1978.

"Eleventh Annual Summer Exhibition of Paintings by American Artists," M. Knoedler & Co, New York, NY, 1918.

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