Skip to Content
Closed today, next open Thursday. Closed today, next open Thursday.

The Bronco Buster

Brown bronze statue of man with riding crop atop a rearing horse.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

Image actions

  • Brown bronze statue of man with riding crop atop a rearing horse.

Date:

Modeled 1895, cast 1899

Artist:

Frederic Remington (American, 1861–1909)
Cast by Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co. (American, 19th century)

About this artwork

A technical achievement in bronze, this composition of a cowboy attempting to tame a horse portrays an idea of the Western United States in dramatic and violent terms: white settler-colonialists in the act of subduing nature and flesh. As a painter and illustrator, Frederic Remington garnered success by crafting mythic, romanticized views of frontier life; The Bronco Buster was his first attempt to do so in sculpture. For white audiences living east of the Mississippi River at the turn of the 20th century, the artist’s triumphant figures came to represent a singular—and distorted—vision of an unfamiliar American West.

Status

On View, Gallery 161

Department

Arts of the Americas

Artist

Frederic Remington (Sculptor)

Title

The Bronco Buster

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Modeled 1895

Medium

Bronze with brown patina

Edition

No. 55

Inscriptions

Signed recto, left, on base top, in cast: ""Frederic Remington" with "55" in F of signature; inscribed right side, on base, in cast: "Copyrighted by / Frederic Remington 1895"; inscribed verso, on base top, in cast: "The Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co.: Founders N.Y. 1899". Inscribed bottom, middle, incised: "no. 55".

Dimensions

60 × 54.7 × 34.5 cm (23 5/8 × 21 9/16 × 13 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

George F. Harding Collection

Reference Number

1982.808

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/97916/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

Share

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Learn more

Image actions

Share