Amon Carter print details

A Dash for the Timber

Frederic Remington (1861-1909)

Object Details

  • Date

    1889

  • Object Type

    Paintings

  • Medium

    Oil on canvas

  • Dimensions

    48 1/4 x 84 1/8 in.

  • Inscriptions

    Recto:

    signed and dated l.l.: Frederic Remington \ 1889

    signed and dated l.l. below existing signature: Frederic Re[illeg.] [illeg.]89

    Verso:

    label fragment on [removed] frame: AME[RICA]N ART ASSOCIAT[ION] \ 6 EA[ST] 23D STREET, M[AD]ISON SQUARE SOUTH, [torn] \ NEW [Y]ORK. \ S[torn] \ [torn] \ Artist o[torn] [torn] er_______ \ Addres[s] ________ \ Return ________ \ [E]xhibition 188[torn].

  • Collection Name

    Amon G. Carter Collection

  • Credit Line

    Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, Amon G. Carter Collection

  • Accession Number

    1961.381

  • Copyright

    Public domain

Object Description

Across an arid plain, eight men ride for cover. Just before reaching the trees, one keels over, having been struck by a bullet. Close behind, a group of Native Americans follows in hot pursuit, and it is not clear who will emerge victorious.

Remington executed this climatic scene after Harper’s Weekly sent him west from his home in New York to document army efforts to capture the Apache leader Geronimo. Following the trip, Remington devised this fictional scene to convey the bravery and comradery of western cowboys. The picture was a critical sensation, and it would shape future popular imaginings of western life. Despite its remarkable drama, A Dash for the Timber simplifies a more complex reality. Remington presents settlers and Indigenous peoples as incompatible, linked only through acts of violence. This visual rhetoric denies Native Americans their humanity, portraying them as the primary aggressors, and it obscures accounts of diplomacy and cross-cultural exchange that did not culminate in open conflict..

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023)

Additional details

Location: On view
W28-artist-CMYK-CarterBlack
See more by Frederic Remington

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Educator Resources
  • What tools do artists use to convey a sense of movement and tension?

    What role does setting play in a narrative painting?

    How does an artist incorporate light into a work of art?

    What impact does an artist's use of light and shadow have on the viewer's experience of an artwork?

    What role do stereotypes play in an audience’s understanding of works of art?

  • Grades Pre-K–3

    Students will explore motion in art by using only lines to draw the movements seen in the painting (wavy lines for gallop, forward slash for leaning, spiral for turning cowboy, etc.).

    Grades 3–5

    Students will explore the beginning, middle, and end in narratives. They will imagine they are one of the people in this painting. Using carefully chosen words, they should describe their adventurous day to a friend.

    Grades 3–8

    Show a photograph of Fredric Remington and drawings he made of horses. What is important about the horses in this painting? Share motion studies (or a flipbook) of horses by Eadweard Muybridge.

    On 2-by-12 inch paper, students can create a series of drawings depicting movement.

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