Frederic Remington

Private Collection

Sotheby's, New York, 24 May 1990, lot 97 (consigned by the above)

Private Collection (acquired at the above sale)

Private Collection

Sotheby's, New York, 5 December 1996, lot 131 (consigned by the above)

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Bruce Wear, The Bronze World of Frederic Remington, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1966, p. 56, another cast mentioned

Harold McCracken, The Frederic Remington Book: A Pictorial History of the West, Garden City, New York, 1966, no. 360, pp. 255-56, another cast illustrated

Peter H. Hassrick, Frederic Remington: Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture in the Amon Carter Museum and the Sid W. Richardson Foundation Collections, New York, 1973, pl. 77, p. 181, another cast illustrated

Michael Edward Shapiro, Cast and Recast: The Sculpture of Frederic Remington, Washington, D.C., 1981, no. 44, pp. 63-64, 67, and 69, another cast illustrated

Michael Edward Shapiro & Peter H. Hassrick, Frederic Remington: The Masterworks, New York, 1988, pl. 47, pp. 66, 172, 186, 194-95, 206-07, 210, 223, other casts illustrated

Michael D. Greenbaum, Icons of the West: Frederic Remington's Sculpture, Ogdensburg, New York, 1996, pp. 51-64, 172, other cast illustrated

Thayer Tolles and Thomas Bent Smith, The American West in Bronze, 1850-1925, New York, 2013, pp. 5, 17, 91, 93-94, 99-100, 107, 120, 162, other casts illustrated figs. 1-2, pp. 2 and 4, another cast illustrated

The Broncho Buster was Frederic Remington’s earliest sculpture and has remained emblematic of the American Western category for more than a century since. Adapted from one of the artist’s many illustrations, this dynamic bronze depictures a cowboy taming a wild horse. Remington’s skill and attention to detail, when paired with the work’s highly recognizable subject matter, propelled The Broncho Buster to unprecedented fame. Other versions of this form reside in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and many other leading institutions. 

The present example is number 38 from an edition of 64 casts produced at the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company. Remington authorized Bonnard casts from 1895 to 1900, making this a small and highly detailed run of sculptures. This particular cast has resided in the present owner’s collection since it last appeared at auction at Sotheby’s in 1996.