The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-01-26

the art stores You see water colOrs
prints and paintings copied after mis-
pictures Imitation is not the SINGER
est dattery: it is the highest praise.
\ host Of men are initiating this pic
toriaI historian of the building of our
west because they know how true and
able his work is and because the true
scenes and dramatis perSOnae Of that
vanishing epoch cannot be portrayed
without copying the types and tab
leaux which Remington has made his
Own
Moreover. it would seem that Rem
ington has drawn all that is salient
and dramatic in the lives of the WIN
ners of our west There remains in
all that varied field of rough activity
nothing which he has not put on paper.
One reason why he has achieved So
unique a place as the photographer Of
those scenes is that he lived many
parts of the life Of the plainsmen and
hunters, and loved it all as keenIv
as a hearty man could. Upon leay-
ing college he became d sheep Iancher
and next a benefcent fortune (Which
did not at the time seem so very kind
lv) set him aflOat broke" in the rough
est region there was thus to learn the
worst and hardest phases Of the Dor
derer's existence after having known
the best
All the other artists with similar
tastes and yearnings came too late
They reached the scene after the cur
tain of the past had fallen to rise upon
a new drama and new characters sue.
az one finds upon the western sta ge
today. There was therefore no fore
runner, there can never come up a If
val; there is nothing left for any art
ist alive or yet 10 live except the
mockery Of imitation.
e g .
When an enlightened government or
another Andrew Carnegie. with differ
ent tastes, comes to collect in some
gallery or museum the painted redec-
tons of the empire founding beyond
the prairies of the middle west, Rem
ington's work, and his alone mus
constitute the collection It Is most
strange that there should have been
but one artist in all that imperial tract
throughout so long a space of time.
and that there should have been no
writer or recording clerk of events
For we cannot award that palm to
Bret Harte, whose fancy oUtweighs
the facts in his earliest and most fas-
cinating tales of the limited era and
district Of the prOspectOr and miner
When one views the present exhibi-
ton of RemingtOn's work he feeIs-if
he is a layman-an indescribable. I'M
namable difference between the pic
lures there shown and any other pic
lures of which he has any knowledge
except of course, those canYases
which carry bad limitations Of this pi0-
neer's work. The difference is both
peculiar and fitting; il is the difference
between work along the lines of the
old schools Of Europe and original. in
dependent, purely personal or individ-
ual effort For Remington is, as said
once before in this column. the only
American artist-in all that the term
! implieS-nOw living. He flung himself
into this life work of his, in a series
of drawings called forth by Richard
Watson Glider, before he ever saw an
art school or could distinguish between
the classic or academic products and
/ the individualistic achievements Of the
European painters He had always
/ drawn.
He began 10 draw caricatures Of his
! teachers when he was a boy at school
in st. Lawrence county. But he drew
in his own way then, and he has new
I er drawn or painted in any other way
since then. Being hidden to write and
/ illustrate an article about the Indians
for the Century magazine, he did it,.
He was like the cowboy in one of his
/ own anecdotes who was met some hun
| dreds Of miles from anywhere pulling
a lame horse along by its halter. He
/ accounted for his pastime by saying,
/ I've got il to do"
In the same way Remington had his
/ first task to DO and he did it. If you
could see his first pictures YOU would
] see how far he has pulled that lame
horse since that day. 1t is true that
/ European methods and standards Of
taste ran off him without adhering TO
/ him anywhere. His main concern was,
/ and always has been. TO be accurate.
/ There are Cation WOOdvilles all over
/ the world who may at times produce a
( more elaborate and finished picture
without troubling themselves to study
! tie details of dress ornament and ap-
/ paratuS. but Remington is as careful
with his costumes as even Edwin A.
/ Abbey himself, or correct in his horse
+ paraphernaia as any saddIer who ever
! lived, as true to fact in the makeup
! of a weapon and the way man could
handle it as mortal man can be.
] His exhibition is a revelation of the
/ progress he has made, not in drawing,
( for he could not easily distance his for
/ mer best in that respect. put in feel
] ing, in humanity and emotion and in
dramatic attainment His ar On is
/ boundless and his energy se~-- have
no bottom. Et i said ar..- his
/ friends that h has begun Il Uncover
a new and very impOl AZ branch of
( the enterprise rhiCl took SO very many
( forms among those who broke ground
/ for our railroads. farms and cities be
yOnd the Mississippi and above and
/ beyond the great lakes. This new
study of his-this resolution to picture
a part Of the scene that he has scarce
] " touched upon except in illuStratinE
one or two trips he took with me for
+ Harper's magazine is q colossal under
/ taking.
Partner" he said the last time ]
! saw him. 4 used to think that If
/ buckled down TO it and worked cease
( lesSly for twenty or twenty-five years
( might, maybe, get a half q DAY of
/ for rest. but I see it is not possible
4 I've got to keen a move on for another
/ few decades"