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Lot Essay
Also known as The Triumph, Remington's fourth bronze, The Scalp, is the artist's first sculptural depiction of a Native American subject. In the present work, Remington has rendered a Sioux warrior in a dignified and victorious pose, heroically placed atop a horse that is in mid-stride, coming to an energetic halt.
Commenting on The Scalp specifically, R.W. Gilder, editor of The Century wrote to Remington in 1906 that he "went the other day to see those ripping bronzes of yours. They are all thoroughly alive and thoroughly original. There was one that impressed me especially, as it had more beauty than some of the others, though they all have the beauty of life. I mean the solitary Indian with his arm up, apparently shouting defiance...You seem to sum up the wildman's attitude in that one gesture; and the horse in that is especially fine." (as quoted in B.W. Dippie, The Frederic Remington Art Museum Collection, Ogdensburg, New York, 2001, pp. 151-152)
Critic Arthur Hoeber wrote that "in Remington's work as a sculptor, just as in his work as an artist, his subjects are the unheralded people of the land and the soil, and not the glamorously publicized personalities...instead he chose to devote his time and skill to perpetuating the unnamed cowboys, troopers and Indians." (as quoted in H. McCracken, Frederic Remington: Artist of the Old West, p. 96)
Only eleven sand castings were completed by the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co. before Remington chose to switch to Roman Bronze Works. Once Remington switched to the lost wax casting with Roman Bronze Works he was able to vary the details in each cast, which subsequently altered the overall appearance of the work and resulted in a less consistently modeled form. The present example is one of eleven examples of The Scalp cast by The Henry-Bonnard Company and would be Remington's final sculpture using the sand-casting method.
In the same year The Scalp was first cast, Charles H. Caffin commented in a December 1898 issue of Harper's Weekly that "there is no question of [Remington's] mental picture. It is of the most vivid and assured kind, resulting from a faculty of observation quite extraordinary in its comprehensiveness. What he has seen in his study of horses and their riders he has seen with such completeness that he can record with accuracy an action which passed before his eyes like a flash." (as quoted in M.E. Shapiro and P.H. Hassrick, Frederic Remington: The Masterworks, New York, 1988, p. 192)
Commenting on The Scalp specifically, R.W. Gilder, editor of The Century wrote to Remington in 1906 that he "went the other day to see those ripping bronzes of yours. They are all thoroughly alive and thoroughly original. There was one that impressed me especially, as it had more beauty than some of the others, though they all have the beauty of life. I mean the solitary Indian with his arm up, apparently shouting defiance...You seem to sum up the wildman's attitude in that one gesture; and the horse in that is especially fine." (as quoted in B.W. Dippie, The Frederic Remington Art Museum Collection, Ogdensburg, New York, 2001, pp. 151-152)
Critic Arthur Hoeber wrote that "in Remington's work as a sculptor, just as in his work as an artist, his subjects are the unheralded people of the land and the soil, and not the glamorously publicized personalities...instead he chose to devote his time and skill to perpetuating the unnamed cowboys, troopers and Indians." (as quoted in H. McCracken, Frederic Remington: Artist of the Old West, p. 96)
Only eleven sand castings were completed by the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co. before Remington chose to switch to Roman Bronze Works. Once Remington switched to the lost wax casting with Roman Bronze Works he was able to vary the details in each cast, which subsequently altered the overall appearance of the work and resulted in a less consistently modeled form. The present example is one of eleven examples of The Scalp cast by The Henry-Bonnard Company and would be Remington's final sculpture using the sand-casting method.
In the same year The Scalp was first cast, Charles H. Caffin commented in a December 1898 issue of Harper's Weekly that "there is no question of [Remington's] mental picture. It is of the most vivid and assured kind, resulting from a faculty of observation quite extraordinary in its comprehensiveness. What he has seen in his study of horses and their riders he has seen with such completeness that he can record with accuracy an action which passed before his eyes like a flash." (as quoted in M.E. Shapiro and P.H. Hassrick, Frederic Remington: The Masterworks, New York, 1988, p. 192)