Frederic Remington 1861 - 1909

George F. Harding, Chicago, Illinois
George F. Harding Museum, Chicago, Illinois, 1939 (bequeathed from the above)
The Art Institute of Chicago, 1982 (transferred from the above)

Frederic Remington, Done in the Open, New York, 1902, illustrated
Peter H. Hassrick and Melissa J. Webster, Frederic Remington: A Catalogue Raisonné, Cody, Wyoming, 1996, vol. I, no. 2605, p. 745, illustrated

This work is in very good condition. Lined. There are a few very minor dots of inpainting mostly visible in the upper left and upper right quadrants.
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Frederic Remington was a well-established war correspondent when, in January 1897, he traveled to Cuba to document the events of the Spanish-American War on assignment from the New York Journal and its formidable owner, William Randolph Hearst. Although he was already a seasoned traveler of the American West when he arrived in Cuba, the experience of this war proved profoundly transformative for the artist. As a result, the work he produced during this foreign campaign diverged markedly from his traditionally romanticized iconographic program.

The Advance (Guns Must Be Delivered) is a striking example of Remington’s visual recollections of the conflict, painted approximately four years after its conclusion. Here the artist presents a caravan of American soldiers en route to deliver supplies and ammunition to their beleaguered comrades. Rendered in the dramatic grisaille palette that earned the artist great acclaim during his career, the scene is imbued with an undeniable sense of drama and dynamism. Significantly, Remington depicts the scene not at a heroic conclusion but firmly in the midst of the party’s ascent, as the foot soldiers and cavalry trudge up a hill in a lushly forested locale. Their train slashes through the picture plane at a severe diagonal, a compositional decision that suggests both the sharp incline of the climb and the physical difficulty of the task at hand. The artist’s painterly technique additionally contributes to the sense of rapid motion that permeates the canvas. A small vignette of life during this brief but brutal war, The Advance (Guns Must Be Delivered) beautifully and accurately captures the emotional complexities inherent to a soldier’s experience in battle.