THE OPEN LETTER
BUFFALO HUNT. By George Catlin
In the art of “The Painters of Western Life,” the artist himself plays an important part. Remington, Schreyvogel, Russell, and the rest were explorers and discoverers. Someone has said that Remington was essentially a reporter, that he never became a “painter’s painter,” but that he was the people’s favorite through the subjects he chose. The phrase, “art for art’s sake,” fades into the background as these vivid pictures of life in the Great West blaze out on the canvas. Every stroke of the brushes of these men shows that they lived and did things, and that they were more concerned about reporting results than about methods.
Some of the earlier attempts to picture the West are crude, and scarcely to be classed as art. The name of Catlin is not even mentioned in two of the leading standard works on American painting. He was not a professional artist: he was a lawyer, and he set out to explore the West and to report on the conditions that he found there. His pictures, therefore, though not reckoned with as art productions, are most valuable records. The accompanying illustration, showing an Indian buffalo hunt, is an example. The scene itself is now a part of past history. We don’t hunt buffaloes any more: we collect them, and we regard ourselves as very fortunate today in possessing herds of buffalo gathered and fostered by the public spirited liberality of Mr. William C. Whitney and Mr. Austin Corbin.
Catlin was followed into the West by men who knew much more about art than he; but the object they all sought was the same. Each one of them had stories to tell of the Redman and his life and habits, of the fights and friendships of cavalrymen, of the adventures of cowboys, and in their pictures these subjects were more to them than the purely artistic qualities displayed in their representation. There is, of course, much to admire in their art. Their execution is vigorous, direct and sure. But the historical value of their paintings makes fully as strong an appeal to us as their art interest.
The eminent art critic, Samuel Isham, characterized Remington as an illustrator rather than a painter. “The authoritative chronicler,” he said, “of the whole western land, from Assiniboine to Mexico, and of all men and beasts dwelling therein, is Frederic Remington. He, at least, cannot be said to have sacrificed truth to grace. The raw, crude light, the burning sand, the pitiless blue sky, surround the lank, sunburned men who ride the rough horses, and fight, or drink, or herd cattle, as the case may be.” Mr. Isham points out that the work of these men might actually lose something of their force if their pictures were completer and more finished. Their paintings are bold, brilliant records, and their assembled works might well be classed under the title that Russell gave to his own collection: “Pictures of a West That Has Passed.”