Massena, NY to Fair Haven, NY

The highlight of the day was the Frederick Remington Art Museum in Ogdensburg, New York, on the shore of Lake Ontario.  I almost missed it because I got there before it opened and headed down the road.  But I turned back and I'm glad I did.  Why is it is Ogdensburg when Remington is known for his paintings and bronzes depicting the 19th Century West?  Because he grew up in Ogdensburg and returned here in his 30s before his death at age 39.

A 1988 National Geographic article that I bought in the gift shop says: "He and his contemporary, Charley Russell, created our visual myths of the Old West."  In Remington's case, its a romantic myth.  (Russell's museum is in Great Falls, Montana, and is on my itinerary).  The article goes on, "Through their works Easterners . . . would view the frontier to the West not as an empty, uncivilized place but as a land of limitless opportunity and freedom. . . .  (T)he Western experience began to represent something uniquely American."

Remington, though a son of wealth, financed his western excursions starting in 1881 by sketching or painting illustrations for magazines and books.  These included 90 illustrations for Theodore Roosevelt's Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail.  His most famous painting depicts the charge of Roosevelt's Rough Riders up San Juan Hill.

Remington's 1898
'Charge of the Rough Riders on San Juan Hill'
On Display at Remington Art Museum

While Remington was present at the battlefield, he did not observe the charge.  He composed the picture from the recollections of others who were present.

Remington is best known today for his 22 bronze sculptures, which he started composing in 1896 and worked on until his death in 1909.  Ronald Reagan had two of them in the Oval Office while he was president, "The Bronco Buster" and "The Rattlesnake."  Remington's best-known bronze is "The Bronco Buster," which is on display in the Art Museum. Several bronzes were cast from the wax model. The one in the Oval Office was a gift by Remington to Theodore Roosevelt.  A picture of the bronze in the museum is below:

Remington's 'The Bronco Buster'

You can buy a full-size bronze replica of it from the F&R Bronze Company for $600.

My favorite bronze is 'Coming Through the Rye,' which features four cowboys on horses at a gallop.  The horse on the left has all four feet in the air.  From the National Geographic article:  "Remington learned to depict horses accurately and tried 'to paint running horses so you would feel the details and not see them.'  He wanted for his epitaph: 'He Knew the Horse.'"  Here are two views of 'Rye':

Remington's 'Coming Through the Rye'

Remington's 'Coming Through the Rye'

A couple of his paintings I like have a completely different flavor:

Remington's 'Breaking Up the Ice in Spring'

Remington's 'Howl of the Weather'

I like the muted colors and the dreamy overcast skies.  They are somewhat different and more artsy that most of his paintings.

One last bronze:

Remington's 'Outlaw'

Mileage: 196.  Cumulative mileage: 5,884