Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Frederic Remington Museum - Part 1

I drove to the town of Ogdensburg, on the St. Lawrence River, to see the Remington Art Museum. It was located in an elegant mansion, built in 1810. Frederic Remington never lived here, but his wife moved here with her sister after Frederic's death:

The museum included and was attached to the adjacent mansion:

I entered the front doors and was awed by the opulence and particularly the idea of living like that in the frontier town of Ogdensburg in 1810:

I signed in, paid $9.00 admission and began my tour:

Frederic Remington was born in Canton, New York and grew up mostly in Ogdensburg - both in St. Lawrence County. That's a county map in the lower left:

St. Lawrence County was then a place of forest wilderness and home to mountain men of renown. It's still got a lot of forestland, though farmland now accounts for much of the county:

The first part of the exhibit displayed artifacts from Remington's life in St. Lawrence County:

And items he'd collected during his trips out west. This was a Blackfoot saddle, made of buckskin and beads. Frederic Remington never lived in the west. He traveled there for inspiration for his art:

I entered a large hall, filled with bronze sculptures and paintings:

Remington's bronze sculptures are what I was most familiar with and I was incredibly impressed, both by their intricate detail and by the action they managed to convey. This was "Trooper Of The Plains," done in 1868:

"Dragoons," done in 1850:

"Polo," done in 1904:

"The Cheyenne," 1901:

"The Stampede," 1910. This was a large and magnificent piece, my favorite of the museum's offerings. Sadly, my photo doesn't capture its true power. But there was a lot more to see at the Remington Museum and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow:

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