"Bronco Buster" Bronze Sculpture, after Frederic Remington

This is a beautiful bronze sculpture entitled "Bronco Buster," after Frederic Remington. This is a lost-wax bronze casting of one of only twenty two bronze sculptures Remington created during his life. This specific bronze is dedicated to United States Secretary of State John Hay in 1903 along the base. 

This vigorous portrayal of a cowboy taming a wild horse was the artist’s first effort in bronze, copyrighted in 1895. With an illustrator’s keen eye for drama, he captured the single most illuminating moment of the event.  As the bronco rears up, back arched and splayed tail snapping, the cowboy leans forward and clutches the reins and horse’s mane, not letting the animal best him. The sculpture was based on two of Remington's earlier illustrations- A Bucking Bronco, an illustration to Theodore Roosevelt's article "The Home Ranch" in the March 1888 issue of Century Magazine, and another sketch entitled A Pitching Bronco that was published in the April 30, 1892, issue of Harper's Weekly. As Remington’s first western-themed sculpture, "Bronco Buster" remains the most popular of all his sculptures to this day.

Although born, raised, and educated on the East Coast, Frederic Remington (1861-1909) achieved considerable success as America’s leading illustrator of life on the western frontier. His career took off in the mid-1880s when he began making western illustrations for Harper's Weekly and many other widely read New York magazines. Accompanying both factual news reports and colorful fictional tales, Remington's pictures delighted and informed an East Coast populace hungry for information of the new frontier. Remington traveled West repeatedly and greatly admired the rough and intrepid cowboys and soldiers he met there. He enjoyed meeting them and hearing their stories during his visits as a journalist and illustrator.

Remington produced over 3,000 signed works. Most of them were illustrations, but as he grew older, he turned away from the publishing world and accomplished masterful paintings and drawings. From 1895 to his passing, Remington turned to sculpture and impressionistic oil-on-canvases. He created 22 stunning, energetic bronzes, most of which were created using the lost-wax method of casting.

This bronze is dedicated along the base to Secretary of State John Hay. John Hay (1838-1905) was an American statesman and official whose career in government stretched over almost half a century. Beginning as a private secretary and an assistant for Abraham Lincoln, he eventually became United States Secretary of State under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. 

CONDITION:

Good condition overall. Patinated bronze sculpture. Signed in bronze at base, "Copyright by Frederic Remington." Raised-relief dedication to the side of the bronze base that reads, "Dedicated To John Hay Secretary Of State 1903." Green oval marble plinth. Dimensions: 24" H x 21 1/4" W x 12" D.