Frederic Remington (American, 1861-1909) The Buck Overtaken, circa 1888 Oil on board 15-3/8 x 15-3/8 inches (39.1 x 39.1 cm) Signed lower right: Remington Publisher's stamp on the reverse: Property of The Century Co. / Union Square, New York PROVENANCE: Hindman, Denver, Colorado, November 1, 2022, lot 142; Private collection, Georgetown, Texas. LITERATURE: P. H. Hassrick and M. J. Webster, Frederic Remington: A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings, vol. I, Cody, Wyoming, 1996, p. 118, no. 229, illustrated; Theodore Roosevelt, Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail, New York, 1888, p. 141, illustrated. Born in Canton, New York, in 1861, Frederic Remington became one of the defining interpreters of the American West. Following brief periods of study at Yale and the Art Students League, he developed his distinctive approach largely through observation, travel, and professional illustration. By the late 1880s, his depictions of soldiers, cowboys, Indigenous peoples, and animals were reaching a national audience. His illustrations combined precise descriptive detail with an ability to concentrate action into a single, clearly articulated moment, qualities that also informed his development as a painter. Remington's relationship with Theodore Roosevelt grew from a shared fascination with the West and an admiration for physical courage, independence, and endurance. Both were easterners whose western experiences became central to their public identities. Roosevelt recognized in Remington an artist capable of translating ranching and frontier adventure into compelling visual narratives, while Remington gained an influential advocate who valued his familiarity with horses, equipment, and western life. Their association linked two figures whose work helped shape popular conceptions of the American frontier. Central to this relationship was Roosevelt's Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail, published by the Century Company in 1888. Drawing on his experiences in the Dakota Territory, Roosevelt described cattle ranching, roundups, hunting expeditions, and the demands of life on the open range. Remington provided illustrations for Roosevelt's serialized articles in The Century Magazine and their subsequent publication in book form. Ranging from substantial narrative compositions to small decorative drawings, his images of working cowboys, restless horses, wildlife, and ranch activity brought visual specificity to Roosevelt's prose. Roosevelt's writing also reveals the close relationship between his pursuits as a hunter and his developing interests as a naturalist and conservationist. Hunting required sustained attention to animal behavior, terrain, and the interactions between species, habits of observation that informed his understanding of the natural world. In the chapter "The Ranchman's Life on Crag and Prairie," he describes deer hunting "by the aid of hounds," introducing two ranch dogs with distinct abilities and temperaments: Rob, a rough-coated Scottish staghound, and Brandy, a tracking hound celebrated for his keen nose and persistence. These individualized descriptions convey Roosevelt's affection for the dogs alongside his practical assessment of their work. The Buck Overtaken, circa 1888, gives dramatic form to this account. Reproduced as a wood engraving on page 141 of Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail, the painting depicts the dangerous encounter between a hound and a buck brought to bay. Roosevelt emphasizes the difficulty of such a confrontation, observing that "a buck at bay is a formidable opponent, and no dog can rush in full on the sharp prong points." Remington concentrates the narrative on the moment when the hound gains a position behind the antlers and seizes the deer by the neck. The scene's force derives from this precise observation of vulnerability and resistance. The restrained, nearly monochromatic palette lends the encounter a cinematic intensity while making the composition well suited to reproduction in print. Tonal contrasts define the animals' interlocking forms and focus attention on their struggle. The scene's immediacy places the viewer in the position of a rider approaching in pursuit, witnessing the action at its decisive moment. Within Roosevelt's book, The Buck Overtaken contributes to a portrayal of western life shaped by hunting, endurance, and close observation of nature. It demonstrates Remington's ability to give an illustrative subject both compositional coherence and dramatic force. The work unites the narrative demands of publication with the command of pictorial clarity that became central to his artistic achievement. HID12401132022 © 2026 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice

Hindman, Denver, Colorado, November 1, 2022, lot 142; Private collection, Georgetown, Texas.

Faint yellowing to varnish throughout, with scattered. Small white surface accretion near center of work. Under UV examination, no apparent inpainting.
Framed Dimensions 21.25 X 21.25 Inches