Curator’s Corner

Here come the saucy riders, Girls who are Texas born; Who know the rhythm of riding Over prairie sage and thorn Watch how they cut and circle, Canter and gallop and pace; Each girl and horse united In a flowing pulse of grace. Surely such easy motion, Free from strain or fear, Comes only to those who are quickened By the life of the pioneer.   “Girl Riders,” by Mrs. W. E Boswell, President, National Poetry League in “Poems of the West,” Rodeo Souvenir Annual, 1947, page 67   Though many of the pages of the 1947 Rodeo Souvenir Annual [...]

Have you ever been to a rodeo? What’s your favorite event? Attendees to the annual Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo can see a series of riding and roping contests derived from the working skills of the American cowboy. The rodeo features events such as various roping competitions, barrel racing, bull riding, bronc riding, bareback and ranch saddle bronc riding. “Bareback Bronc Riding,” Rodeo Souvenir Annual, 1947, page 45 According to the 1947 Rodeo Souvenir Annual, featured in our current exhibit Saddles on Parade: The Artistry of Edward Bohlin, the rules allow the saddle bronc rider to use [...]

Opened this month is our new pop-up exhibit, Saddles on Parade: The Artistry of Edward Bohlin. On display through April 2022, the installation includes two saddles and related gear by Bohlin, along with photos and ephemera related to Sid Richardson and his involvement in the annual Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo. One such item is the 1947 Rodeo Souvenir Annual. Over the duration of the exhibit, we’ll flip through the pages with you and share some fun and interesting features from the annual. Rodeo Souvenir Annual, Southwestern Exposition and Fat Stock Show, Fort Worth, Texas, 1947, Compiled by [...]

As we prepare to reopen the museum to the public on June 7, 2021, we are pleased to present a fresh exhibit both in person and virtually! This thematic installation features works from the Sid Richardson Museum displayed to provide new contexts and renewed insights into the collection. The works are grouped around four themes: The Bison and Plains Indian Culture, Western Archetypes, Cowboys and Native Americans, and finally Twilight into Night. Installation of Picturing the American West exhibit While the collection holds a comprehensive group of works by Frederic Remington and Charles Russell, who therefore dominate this [...]

The museum made a recent discovery about an artwork from the collection as a result of one of our public programs, Tea & Talk. Designed to help us slow down the art looking experience by spending 10, 20, or even 30 minutes with one work of art. Tea & Talk engages participants through shared conversation about what we see. During a recent virtual Tea & Talk with Peter Moran’s c. 1880-81 oil painting Indian Encampment, the conversation focused on the large number of horses in the painting, leading some to speculate that the Indigenous people in the painting may have [...]

Our current exhibit, In A Different Light: Winslow Homer & Frederic Remington, explores some of the comparisons in the careers of these two iconic American artists. One of those parallels is that both Homer & Remington served as artist war correspondents: Homer in the Civil War and Remington in the Indian Wars in the Southwest and the Spanish American War in Cuba. The exposure to the realities of war made a lasting impression on both men. At the outset of the Civil War, Harper’s dispatched Homer to the frontlines in Virginia in 1861 to capture life on the battlefield. On [...]

Our current exhibit, In a Different Light: Winslow Homer & Frederic Remington, includes some artworks by Homer that focus on his seaside imagery. Homer often created scenes focusing on the forces of nature and dangers of the turbulent sea. Some artworks may include women looking anxiously out at sea, as in his 1888 etching Perils of the Sea, available to view through our virtual tour. Some artworks include scenes of near-drowned women, as in this 1887 etching The Life Line. Both prints are part of a group of etchings that Homer produced in the 1880s that closely followed his painted compositions. In The Life [...]

One of the similarities between Frederic Remington and Winslow Homer as demonstrated through our current exhibit, In a Different Light: Winslow Homer & Frederic Remington, is that both artists made their start as illustrators working for the popular magazines of the period (Harper’s Weekly, Scribner’s Monthly, etc). One of their key assignments was as war correspondents. Remington focused on the American Indian Wars in the Southwest and later the Spanish American War in Cuba. Being from an earlier generation, Homer focused on the American Civil War. In 1863, Homer partnered with Boston publisher Louis Prang (who is sometimes referred to as the “father of the American Christmas card”) in a [...]

One of the themes of our current exhibition In a Different Light: Winslow Homer & Frederic Remington, is the exploration of both artists’ practice of repeating character types throughout their career. The exhibit includes a rotation of works on paper by Homer. One of the rotations features two works inspired by Homer’s visit to Cullercoats, England - Perils of the Sea (1888) and Scotch Mist (1883). Examination of the two artworks reveals Homer’s practice of reusing groupings of figures while reducing compositions to their essential story-telling elements.   Perils of the Sea | Winslow Homer | 1888 | Etching | Amon Carter Museum of American Art | 1983.58 Scotch Mist | Winslow Homer (1836-1910) | 1883 [...]

Our current exhibit, In a Different Light, places the work by Frederic Remington alongside artworks by Winslow Homer. Our visitors and readers are likely familiar with Remington. But who was Homer? Winslow Homer (1836 - 1910) was one of the most popular and celebrated artists of late nineteenth-century America. A native of Boston, he was born the second of three brothers to Henrietta Benson and Charles Homer. Henrietta was herself a gifted watercolorist, and likely influenced her son to pursue artistic studies. Winslow Homer His earliest artistic training came in 1854 when Homer became an apprentice to the [...]