Evening star., 1937-07-10

hand gained cunning his own better
taste prevailed-the mark OF the
illustrator disappeared and that Of
the painter took its place"
! IT WAS when this transition oc-
CURED that his paintings attained
to lasting distinction. The historical
value Of his work is great, but unless
he had been able to couple this with
artistic quality it would have possessed
only passing interest. There must be
fusion of substance and technique" I"
The spirit of the subject must be
superbly caught but the drawing must
be good, the modelling strong. the
| erect unified. All this Remington
learned In the hard school of experi-
ence and put to good service. Espe-
cially was he successful in his paint.
ing Of night scenes in which he
rendered with exceptional skill the
luminousity Of moonlight and figures
passing In and out OF nocturnal
shadows. There have not been an
overplus Of successful painters of noe
turns.
And finally, attention should be
drawn to Remington's skill in draw
| Ing and painting horses, the essential
| accompaniment to life in the open
on our Western plains. The Indian
and his pony, the cowboy and his
bronco were inSeparable. Indeed, as
| well-knoWn writer has remarked
these men were in fact four footed;
like the youth OF today they never
walked when they could ride. And
the character OF Remington's horses
| Is as marked as that of his men, if
not more SO; they droop with wari-
ness on the trail and from hard
riding; they move with strength and
ease; they show docilty and ILL.,
temper; they are mastered and mas
terful-but always real horsef1esh.
A full sized equestrian statue Of a
cowboy modelled by Frederic Reming-
ton stands in Fairmont Park, Phila-
delphia. Rather impressionistic in
technical treatment 1t abounds with
action-action, however, which seems
too suddenly arrested and therefore
| NPAASAiNAoA' \ hC oulILC 1dulL lS SSCl,
but in smaller measure, in the Corco-
ran Gallery bronzes, which are ex-
tremely vital but not quite sufficiently
elemental. But they have been evi-
IDENTIFY modelled with great sincerity
and enthusiasm. In subject and
treatment they are 100 per cent
American-our own.
THE cowboy and Indian have pro-
vided themes for other American
artists from the days of Eastman and
Bierstadt down to today. George de
Forest Brush did some engaging In
| dian paintings before turning to his
life theme Of the mother and child:
Couse's Indian paintings have at
| talned to considerable fame, and
! Justly: other painters of the Taos
| School and Of Southern California
have graphically pictured for us the
vanishing life Of the plains. but none
just as Remington did. Charles M.
Russell and Will James have ap-
preached him closely as painters. il
Illustrators and authors; Percy Crosby's
drawings of Western horses and riders
and Levon Vests etchings are in
imitable, but they belong to another
and later era. The chapter in Ameri-
can history that he illustrated so ably
is closed
! Frederic Remington died in 1909
Fourteen years later, in 1923, when
the public library at Ogdensburz was
rebuilt, a Remington memorial was
established in a separate building
across the way. Herein were installed
! the collection of his paintings unsold