Frederic Remington magazine illustration for "Collier's Weekly" (1910): rare, beautifully framed antique

First, Frederic Remington succumbed to a burst appendix on 26 December 1909 and had been dead for nearly a year when Collier’s published this illustration. Second, Americans’ infatuation with “the West” had peaked some years before FR’s death, and as this became apparent to the artist, he shifted his focus from painting to sculpture.

The date of the work is not legible in Collier’s reproduction, but FR probably produced it after 1902.

The historians at the Frederic Remington Art Museum add this information: “Frederic Remington's fame burst off the magazine pages by the time he signed a contract with Collier's Magazine in 1902. He agreed to provide them with a color painting per month at the commanding price of $1,000.00 each. In each case, Collier's would print the painting as a color halftone in the magazine, usually as a two-page centerfold. Unlike the previous illustration work he did for Harper's Weekly, Harper's Monthly, The Century, Scribner's, etc., Remington was free to paint whatever he wanted. His images were no longer tied to text. Remington created most of the paintings Collier's in colored oil paint on canvases that were approximately 27 x 40".” 

FR and his wife had relocated from New York City to New Rochelle in 1890. Shortly before he died, FR sold this residence and his studio, which was on a hill behind it, and moved east to the open spaces of Ridgefield, Connecticut. Before he departed from New Rochelle, he burned dozens of his western paintings.

This painting may have been a gift from the artist to his friends at Collier's. The magazine did, after all, have and agreement with the artist. Perhaps Collier's revived this agreement to produce a tribute to the man, his artistry, and The West on the first anniversary of his death. By December of 1910 they were all fading memories.