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Lot 143
Frederic Remington(1861-1909)The Broncho Buster 23 3/4in high
17 March 2020, 13:00 PDT
Los AngelesSold for US$437,575 inc. premium
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Aaron Bastian
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Kathy Wong
Senior Director, Fine Art
Victoria Zaks
Specialist, Head of Sale
Frederic Remington (1861-1909)
The Broncho Buster
inscribed 'Frederic Remington' (on the base), 'COPYRIGHTED BY / Frederic Remington 1895' and 'CIRE PERDUE- ROMAN BRONZE WKS N.Y.' (along the base) and '4' (under the base)
bronze with brownish-black patina
23 3/4in high
Modeled in 1895.
inscribed 'Frederic Remington' (on the base), 'COPYRIGHTED BY / Frederic Remington 1895' and 'CIRE PERDUE- ROMAN BRONZE WKS N.Y.' (along the base) and '4' (under the base)
bronze with brownish-black patina
23 3/4in high
Modeled in 1895.
Footnotes
Provenance
Private collection.
with James Graham & Sons, New York, New York, 1972, sold by the above.
Property from the Estate of Barron Hilton, Beverly Hills, California, acquired from the above.
Literature
H. McCracken, Frederic Remington: Artist of the Old West, New York, 1947, n.p., pl. 41, another example illustrated.
P. Hassrick, Frederic Remington, Fort Worth, Texas, 1973, p. 33, no. 53, another example illustrated.
M.E. Shapiro, Cast and Recast: The Sculpture of Frederic Remington, exhibition catalogue, Washington, D.C., 1981, pp. 63-69, another example illustrated.
M.E. Shapiro, P. Hassrick, Frederic Remington: The Masterworks, New York, 1988, p. 172, pls. 47-48, another example illustrated.
J. Ballinger, Frederic Remington, New York, 1989, p. 74, another example illustrated.
M.D. Greenbaum, Icons of the West: Frederic Remington's Sculpture, Ogdensburg, New York, 1996, pp. 51-64, 178, another example illustrated.
Frederic Remington had worked as an accomplished illustrator for nearly a decade before trying his hand as a sculptor. In late 1894, Remington was encouraged by two friends—the Franco-American sculptor Frederick Ruckstull and the playwright Augustus Thomas—to transform an earlier illustration of a bucking broncho into a three-dimensional wax model. Ruckstull, who was working on a monumental equestrian statue commission for the Pennsylvania State Capitol, provided all the tools to Remington, but perhaps more importantly, the encouragement to try and trust his innate ability. Thomas also recognized a 'sculptor's degree of vision' in Remington's drawings and further encouraged him. 1 In modeling Broncho Buster, due to its elevated and displaced center of gravity, Remington encountered the technical challenge of how to support the horse's hind legs without a post. To keep the feeling of weightlessness, he resolved the problem by increasing the armature—learned from observing Ruckstull at work.2
Modeled in 1895, Broncho Buster was Remington's first sculpture and, to this day, remains his most famous. The dynamic image of a cowboy breaking a wild horse was a radical re-interpretation of the equestrian statue form, and it captured the imagination of the popular press in his day. Remington was lauded for his attempt in a new medium as well as his technical skill by Harper's Weekly and The New York Times, who noted, 'Now that he has started in another direction, and begun so promisingly, his career will be remarked with still greater interest and subsequent work of this kind will be watched for eagerly.'3 Remington modeled twenty-one subsequent sculptures in his lifetime, producing work with even greater dynamism and contrapposto. Broncho Buster, however, remains his best-known work for its originality and raw expression.
1 M.D. Greenbaum, Icons of the West: Frederic Remington's Sculpture, Ogdensburg, New York, 1996, p. 14.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid, 51.