Blog

11 06, 2014

Stories of the West

2020-01-17T12:58:56-06:00June 11th, 2014|2 Comments

Throughout the summer, in partnership with the Fort Worth Library’s Worth Reading Program, the museum is presenting Art of Story children’s workshops. This program is an opportunity for kids to explore the American West while learning how to compose a story. Storytelling is important because stories help us connect with each other and are central to our mental processes for understanding, remembering, and communicating. Stories make it easy to learn and teach us the history and values of our people and other cultures. Plus, stories are fun! Remington and Russell were great storytellers, as is evidenced in their paintings. Each [...]

5 06, 2014

Meet & Greet: Betsy

2020-01-17T12:57:40-06:00June 5th, 2014|0 Comments

Continuing our summer blog series, Meet & Greet, let’s get acquainted with the Sid Richardson Museum’s Director of Education Resources, Betsy Thomas. Describe your job. I oversee the Archives and Library, which houses all records related to the Museum’s collection and history (including ads and reproductions of the Museum’s artworks). As a part of the Education Department, I co-teach in the studio classroom, working with the Director of School and Family Programs in teaching hands-on art activities related to the works displayed in the Museum. I also assist the Museum Director with exhibition preparation and copyediting of Museum publications. What [...]

27 05, 2014

Nocturnes

2020-01-17T12:56:17-06:00May 27th, 2014|1 Comment

Contrabandista a la Frontera is unusual among Frank Tenney Johnson’s oeuvre, or collection of works, in portraying gunfire but representative in showing one of his favorite color schemes. This work suggests why Johnson’s reputation as a pure painter – an artist rather than an illustrator – secured his election as an associate in the National Academy of Design in 1929 and as a full member eight years later, a distinction bestowed upon only three other artists represented in our collection: Gilbert Gaul, William R. Leigh, and Peter Hurd. Frank Tenney Johnson, Contrabandista a la Frontera, 1925, Oil on canvas, [...]

21 05, 2014

Dutch Branch Ranch

2020-01-17T12:54:30-06:00May 21st, 2014|12 Comments

I recently made a trip out to Dutch Branch Ranch, located southwest of Fort Worth. Sid Richardson bought the ranch in 1946. Previously, Dutch Branch Ranch was owned by Elliot Roosevelt, son of Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt. During Elliot’s tenure, President Roosevelt visited his son out on the Texas homestead on multiple occasions. Carlton Penn, the ranch foreman while the Roosevelt’s occupied the ranch, stayed on as foreman when Mr. Richardson took over operation in the 1940s. Mr. Richardson never lived on the property, but rather it was one of his local bases for his ranching business. The ranch [...]

13 05, 2014

From Canvas to Screen

2020-01-17T12:53:58-06:00May 13th, 2014|0 Comments

The Sid Richardson Museum features permanent and special exhibitions of art of the American West with an emphasis on the premier Western artists, Frederic Remington and Charles Russell. It is the work of these artists, among many others, that set the stage for Hollywood and the birth of Western films. This summer the museum is hosting a film series, Movies at the Museum, which will focus on classic Westerns. Frederic Remington, The Apaches!, 1904, Oil on canvas, 25 x 30 inches Many of the early film directors were inspired by the artwork of Remington and Russell, using the [...]

6 05, 2014

Meet & Greet: Kat

2020-01-17T12:52:55-06:00May 6th, 2014|0 Comments

Over the course of this summer, we will be featuring a new blog series: Meet & Greet. These posts are an opportunity for our readers to get to know members of our staff here at the Sid Richardson Museum. For the first post in our series, I’d like to introduce you to Katherine Yount, Director of School and Family Programs. Describe your job. I work with our education department to plan and implement school tours as well as children and family programs. These programs include both gallery experiences and studio art making. I also manage our 15 wonderful docents who [...]

30 04, 2014

Harmless Hunter

2020-01-17T12:51:55-06:00April 30th, 2014|2 Comments

Although known for his depictions of cowboys and American Indians, Charlie Russell gave much attention to the wildlife that surrounded him near his Montana homestead. In fact, compositions of wild animals comprise roughly a quarter of the artist’s total production and attracted avid patronage during his career. However, scholars have paid little attention to Russell’s wildlife art. A new exhibition hopes to change that. On May 17, Harmless Hunter: The Wildlife Work of Charles M. Russell premieres at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming before touring to the Rockwell Museum of Western Art in Corning, New York, [...]

22 04, 2014

Basketry

2020-01-17T12:50:42-06:00April 22nd, 2014|2 Comments

Basket weaving is an ancient craft, as old as the human race. In fact, basketry antedates pottery, having been in an advanced stage while pottery was still in its infancy. The word “basket” has changed very little from its original, the Welsh “basgawd,” which literally means a weaving or putting together of splinters. It is believed that the development of baskets originated first from canes and then gourds, used to carry water. But gourds were heavy and difficult to transport, especially when travelling long distances across a desert. To help alleviate this distress, the carrier wrapped the gourd in a [...]

15 04, 2014

Trouble on the Range

2020-01-17T12:48:34-06:00April 15th, 2014|0 Comments

Russell’s When Cowboys Get in Trouble shows a scene familiar to many cowboys. Two of the horses are rearing and trying to buck their riders so they can flee from the mad cow. The saliva flying from the cow’s mouth reveals its frustration, and you can sense the horses’ fear in their widened eyes! In the middle of all the confusion, the cowboy on the gray horse frantically tries to pull his gun out without tangling his hand in the rope. Will he get to the gun before it’s too late? Charles M. Russell, When Cowboys Get in Trouble [...]

9 04, 2014

Travel by Night

2020-01-17T12:47:22-06:00April 9th, 2014|4 Comments

On a starry night, a stagecoach pulled by six horses travels on a moonlit path through a mountainous range when the horses get spooked. What has terrified the horses? The artist, Frederic Remington, does not tell us, but instead implies that there is something beyond the painting’s frame. The title, A Taint on the Wind, suggests that the horses smell traces of a foul odor in the breeze, causing them to pull of the reins. Frederic Remington, A Taint On the Wind, 1906, Oil on canvas, 27 1/8 x 40 inches While stagecoach travel was a popular mode [...]