Indians Simulating Buffalo

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Indians Simulating Buffalo

Artist Frederic Remington (American, 1861-1909)

Date1908

DimensionsPainting: 27 × 40 in. (68.6 × 101.6 cm)
Frame: 35 3/4 × 48 3/4 × 3 1/2 in. (90.8 × 123.8 × 8.9 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of Florence Scott Libbey

Object number

1912.1

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 23A, New Media

Label TextAn exchange of glances is the focal point of Frederic Remington’s intriguing scene. Bent over their grazing ponies with bison skins thrown over them, two Native Americans of the Great Plains employ a time-honored hunting method. In this context, however, they have disguised themselves as bison (Remington uses the incorrect term “buffalo” in his title, as well as a colonialist term for Native peoples) in order to scout the presence of white settlers; a barely visible wagon train seems to have prompted their significant look. More than any other artist, Remington shaped our view (and misconceptions) of the so-called Old West. Fascinated with its vast panoramas and raw drama, he vividly recorded the lives of Native Americans, US cavalrymen, cowboys, and settlers in paintings, magazine illustrations, and sculptures. This painting, completed a year before his death, was commissioned for the magazine Collier’s Weekly.Published ReferencesCollier, P. F. (publisher), Eight New Remington Paintings, 1909, repr. (col.).

Collier's Magazine, XLIII, September 18, 1909, repr. p. 10.

McCracken, H., The Frederic Remington Book, Garden City, NY, 1966, p. 99, fig. 128 (reproduced from Collier's illustration).

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, p. 94, pl. 150.

Craze, Sophia, Frederic Remington, New York, repr. p. [90] (col.).

Ballinger, James, Frederic Remington, New York, 1989, p. 141-142, repr. p. 140 (col.).

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 152 repr. (col.).

"Frederic Remington" Art a Facts Magazine, vol. 3, no. 2, Oct/Nov 1999, repr. p. 3 (col.).

Adams, Lavonne J., Through the Glorieta Pass, Long Beach, Pearl Editions, 2009, repr. (col.) cover.

Carlson/Strom: New Performance Video, Lincoln, MA, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, 2009, p. 36, fig. 1 (col.).

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 297, repr. (col.).

Exhibition HistorySaginaw Museum, Saginaw Michigan. 1951.

New York, Wildenstein, How the West was Won, 1968, no. 14, repr.

Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Frederic Remington, 1973, no. 73, repr. (cat. by P. Hasserick).

Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, The Bison in Art, 1977, p. 82, repr. (col.) p. 83, (cat. by L. Barsness).

New Orleans, LA, New Orleans Museum of Art, 1979-80.

Denver, Denver Art Museum, Frederic Remington: the Late Years, 1981, p. 35, repr. (col.) p. 34, (det. (col.)) p. 35.

Corning, New York, The Rockwell Museum, Remington's West, 1984, repr. p. 15.

New York, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, American Paintings from the Toledo Museum of Art, 1986.

St. Louis, St. Louis Art Museum; Cody Buffalo Bill Historical Center; Houston, Museum of Fine Arts; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Frederick Remington, the Masterworks, 1988-1989, pp. 13, 139, 159, 163, pl. 38 (col.), p. 156.

Jackson, Mississippi Museum of Art; Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art; Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, The American West: Out of Myth, Into Reality, 2000, fig. 23, p. 47, (col.). Cooperstown (NY), Fenimore Art Museum, Masterworks from the Frederic Remington Museum, May 25 - September 4, 2007.