Broncho Buster No60 Modeled 1895, cast 1899 USA by Frederic Remington

Broncho Buster was Frederic Remington’s first and most popular sculpture. Adapted from one of the artist’s many illustrations, this dynamic bronze depicts a cowboy taming a wild horse. The drama and action of the sculpture are remarkable for a material as solid and static as bronze. Remington’s skill and attention to detail, when paired with the work’s highly recognizable subject matter, propelled Broncho Buster to unprecedented fame and resulted in its frequent reproduction. It remains to this day an icon of Western American art. There are fine examples of this form in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Art Institute of Chicago, among other institutions. “He is, of course, one of the most typical American artists we have ever had, and he has portrayed a most characteristic and yet vanishing type of American life. The soldier, the cowboy and rancher…will live in his pictures and bronzes, I verily believe, for all time.” –Theodore Roosevelt, as quoted in Pearson’s Magazine, 1907 The present example of Broncho Buster is number 60 from an edition of 64 casts produced at the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company Founders. All of these casts, produced between 1895 and 1900, are identical in form. Because they were produced in a small edition size, each example maintains a high level of detail and texture, and each retains a unique numerical inscription within the “F” of the artist’s signature on the base. Only 66 examples of Broncho Buster were cast during Remington’s lifetime, according to the artist’s personal ledger. 64 of these examples were cast by Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company Founders, and the other two were by Roman Bronze Works. The remaining examples in circulation, of which there are hundreds, were produced posthumously. This particular rendition is exceptional due to the rarity of lifetime casts in circulation today. According to Michael D. Greenbaum in Icons of the West, Frederic Remington’s Sculpture, “The Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co. produced sixty-four largely identical sand castings of the bronze between 1895 and 1900. The foundry’s consistently superior quality meant each casting was as poignant and dramatic as the model Remington originally fashioned. As much as The Broncho Buster was a keen study in balance and technique, it was also an accomplishment in detail. A brand on the horse’s left hindquarter, a triangle inside a circle, appears on all castings, and the cowboy’s quirt is perpendicular to the base. The horse’s eyes are hollow and the rider’s right stirrup loose. All the castings in the edition were assembled from ten individually cast pieces, which the foundrymen braised, filed and hand finished. The castings were then finished in a rich, light brown patina. The Bronco BusterDate: Modeled 1895, cast 1899 Artist: Frederic Remington (American, 1861–1909) Cast by Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co. (American, 19th century) About this artwork A technical achievement in bronze, this composition of a cowboy attempting to tame a horse portrays an idea of the Western United States in dramatic and violent terms: white settler-colonialists in the act of subduing nature and flesh. As a painter and illustrator, Frederic Remington garnered success by crafting mythic, romanticized views of frontier life; The Bronco Buster was his first attempt to do so in sculpture. For white audiences living east of the Mississippi River at the turn of the 20th century, the artist’s triumphant figures came to represent a singular—and distorted—vision of an unfamiliar American West. Artist Frederic Remington (Sculptor) Title The Bronco Buster Place United States (Artist's nationality:) Date Modeled 1895 Medium Bronze with brown patina Edition No. 60 Inscriptions Signed recto, right, on base top, in cast: ""Frederic Remington" with "60" in F of signature; inscribed verso, on base side, in cast: "Copyrighted by / Frederic Remington 1895"; inscribed right, on base top, in cast: "The Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co.: Founders N.Y. 1899". Inscribed bottom, middle, etched: "60". Dimensions 60cm (23 5/8 in.) A 1899 casting numbered "55" is held by the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. Another casting numbered "50", sold at Sotheby's New York, Thursday, December 2, 2010, as lot 107