Works of Art

Remington’s fourth subject in bronze was originally copyrighted December 8, 1898, as The Triumph. The Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company completed eleven sand castings before Remington shifted his work to Roman Bronze Works after 1900. At that point the artist made substantial changes to the model, and the resulting lost-wax casts were marketed as The Scalp—the name by which both versions of the bronze is known today. The bronze reproduced here is one of the finest surviving lost-wax casts, marked number six and recorded in the Roman Bronze Works ledgers on December 31, 1908. In this lost-wax example, one of six known lifetime casts, Remington greatly altered the base of his original work to become a more natural, rock-strewn incline. The left rear leg of the horse has been drawn back, giving a greater sense of stability to the composition. Overall, the surface textures of the bronze are much rougher, breaking reflected light and causing the figure to appear more animated. The face of the Indian, more deeply modeled than in the earlier version, has now become gaunt and fierce. Instead of a rifle he cradles a tomahawk; his shield is more elaborate, and a bow and quiver lie across his back. The greater sense of movement and raw power in the lost-wax version is typical of the artist’s general stylistic direction in the period.

From his earliest period as an illustrator, Remington was fascinated by the American Indian. He visited many camps and reservations, collecting material that he would employ in his art for the rest of his life. This included a large number of Indian photographic portraits that depicted the ideal type that attracted him: tall and lithe, with sharply defined features, as he saw among tribes like the Apache, Cheyenne, or Sioux. For his part, Remington was unusually sympathetic to the general plight of the Indian in this period. As early as 1888 he had written: “The so-called Indian problem is no problem at all in reality, only that it has been made one by a long succession of acts which were masterly in their imbecility and were fostered by political avarice.” In his sculpture, the image of the Indian on horseback was a grand, romantic symbol of a way of life that was no more.