Works of Art

During the Spanish-American War, Remington served for a time as a special correspondent with the United States Fifth Army Corps during their victorious campaign in Cuba. Long before the outbreak of hostilities with Spain, the artist had been one of those—along with his friend Theodore Roosevelt—who fervently hoped that an armed conflict would develop. Reflecting the jingoistic mood of his times, the artist declared: “He who has not seen war only half comprehends the possibilities of his race.” Once war was declared, the artist accompanied the troops, including Roosevelt and his famous Rough Riders, as far as the Battle of San Juan Hill. In the end, Remington’s experiences at the front were not what he had expected, for he observed the grim realities of death and disease very close at hand. After his return to the states, he wrote not of glory or victory, but of the chaos of war and the suffering of the men he had encountered in the field. In 1899 Remington returned to Cuba on a special assignment for Collier’s magazine to report on the army of occupation. He created this depiction of one of the Cuban soldiers, which the magazine subsequently produced as an advertising poster.