FREDERIC REMINGTON | THE ROUND-UP

Mr. And Mrs. Rodney W. Alexander, Fort Myers, Florida (sold: Christie's, New York, December 4, 1997, lot 78)

Acquired by the present owner at the above sale

By 1888, Frederic Remington had established himself as one of the most popular illustrators in the United States. His wife, Eva (“Missie”) Caten, described the artist's growing prominence in a letter to Remington's uncle, Horace Sackrider, dated December 12, 1888: "Fred has as firm a grip on Harper's and the Century as any artist in this country. He has all he can do...Fred is told by artists that he is talked about more than any artist in this country and everyone looks upon him as the strongest man" (as quoted in Philip R. St. Clair, ed., Frederic Remington: The American West, New York, 1981, p. xvii).

The Round-up was unknown to Remington scholars until 1997. Its composition bears a strong similarity to Trailing Cattle, the artist's illustration for the April 1888 edition of Century Magazine.