American Illustrator, Sculptor, and Painter, best known for his powerful depictions of the American West. The art of Frederic Remington defined the American West during his lifetime and played a major role in creating the popular image of the West that persists today. Remington's subjects, the military, the cowboy, and the American Indian, centered on conflict. In some of his best works, conflict was not only the subject, but also created the aesthetic tension of the artwork. Frederic Sackrider Remington was born October 4, 1861, in Canton, New York, the only child of Seth Pierre Remington and Clara Bascomb Sackrider Remington. Remington attended the Yale College School of the Fine Arts for three semesters beginning in 1878 and also played football for Yale. After his father died, he left school and started working as a reporter. In 1881, he made his first trip west to Montana Territory and subsequently sold his first sketch of cowboys to Harper's Weekly. In 1883, he bought and worked a sheep ranch in Peabody, Kansas. On October 1, 1884, Remington married Eva Adele Caten of Gloversville, New York. After his ranch and other business ventures failed, Remington ended his only Western residence and then traveled in the Southwest, resuming his career as a reporter and illustrator. An Eastern audience fascinated with the West eagerly consumed Remington's dramatic scenes of cowboys, cavalrymen, and Indians. It was this type of art that gave rise to the romantic notion of the West as an area of danger, excitement, and dramatic confrontation. By the mid-1890s, Remington became one of the most popular and successful illustrators of the age. His drawings of cavalry troops, cowboys, and Indians filled popular periodicals such as Harper's Weekly and Collier's. When Remington began sculpting in the 1890s, his mastery of the medium was soon regarded with critical approval: "The Broncho Buster" remains his most celebrated sculptural work. As his painting technique became more Impressionistic around the turn of the century, his works gained wider popularity and critical acclaim in that medium as well. Although Remington continued to depict Western themes throughout his life, his twentieth-century paintings became more tranquil and atmospheric, ranging from Impressionistic scenes of his native New York State to images of the West that were less concerned with storytelling than his earlier works had been. To maintain and expand his knowledge of his subjects, Remington kept up a pattern of annual trips to the West. At his home in New Rochelle, New York, Remington created a Western environment in his studio by surrounding himself with collected objects. The Whitney Gallery of Western Art has a comprehensive reconstruction of Remington's magnificent studio. Frederic Remington was 48 years old when he died on December 26, 1909, from postoperative complications after an appendectomy. During his short life, Remington produced more than 3,000 drawings and paintings, 22 bronze sculptures (cast in editions), two novels (one of which was adapted to the stage), and over 100 magazine articles and stories.