Works of Art

Remington was self-taught as a sculptor, and The Bronco Buster was his first subject to be cast in bronze. It proved to be the artist’s most popular work, and approximately 150 casts were produced during his lifetime. Most of Remington’s bronzes were sold at Tiffany & Co. in New York, where customers could view a large selection of sculptural works by Remington and his contemporaries. The artist’s surviving records show that the selling price of The Bronco Buster remained $250 throughout Remington’s lifetime. For each sale the artist received $90; $50 went to the consignee, and the foundry was paid the balance. The overwhelming success of The Bronco Buster bronze can be seen in the number of castings made. The Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company produced sixty-four sand castings, and the Roman Bronze Works ledgers (now in the Amon Carter Museum archives) indicate that approximately ninety lost-wax castings were sold before Remington’s death in December 1909. Prior to the death of Eva Remington, the artist’s widow, in 1918, an additional 125 castings were produced. In the period between her death and the final destruction of all Remington’s models in 1921, another sixty casts were created. Thus it can be said that nearly 340 authorized casts of Remington’s Bronco Buster were made—making it the single most successful statuette produced in America during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The Bronco Buster bronze reproduced here is a later unnumbered cast, probably created during the last phase of authorized production. In general, the fine detailing that one sees in the early lost wax casts of The Bronco Buster begins to disappear with the examples numbered in the 60s, which were produced in 1907. After that, the variations in detail cease, and the work becomes generalized; the patina, or surface finish of the bronzes also becomes more uniform and rather leaden in quality. This example displays the muddied details and poorly articulated surface of those late casts. It lacks the vitality that one sees in the other two lifetime casts in the Amon Carter Museum’s collection.