Remington, Russell and the Language of Western Art

Beginning about 1825, frontier artists of the American West shaped the national identity through their collective images of the region. Following in their footsteps were Frederic Remington (1861-1909) and Charles M. Russell (1864-1926), who brought western art to its apotheosis, becoming, in the historian Robert Taft's phrase, "the most celebrated artists of the West."

As young men, Remington and Russell struck out for the West, seeking adventure and self-identity. Remington stayed for only one year, Russell for the rest of his life. But both eventually became artists, and both took as their subject the disappearing West and its people. Different in temperament and style, they became the focal point of a manufactured rivalry that dominated the American art scene at the turn of the century and in essence pitted East against West. Camps of followers developed, and duels were waged on their behalf in the press, although neither Remington nor Russell directly engaged in the rivalry.

This volume recounts the story of their shared limelight, its interplay and tensions. It also explores who Remington and Russell were, how their art interacted, and why, despite their fundamental differences, they are so inextricably joined in the public mind. Their depictions of the West and its people--Indians, cowboys, cavalrymen, and mountainmen--continue to define the West in the American imagination.