Curator’s Corner

In 1948, A&M College of Texas (now A&M University), established the “Opportunity Award.” The scholarship intended to aid “worthy young men of Texas” who were unable to afford college without financial assistance. Sid Richardson contributed regularly to the fund for several years. Although he was a wealthy business man, Sid came from a humble background much like the young men the scholarship award supported. “I had it sort of rough when I was young, and I’d like to do something for underprivileged kids.” Jesse “Jack” Mercer Couch , 1951 Many of the recipients of the scholarship fund wrote Sid letters [...]

St. Joseph (San José) Island, 8 miles east of the coast of Rockport, TX, is a sand barrier island in Aransas County. The St. Joseph Island Ranch, a stretch of land 19 miles long and up to 5 miles wide, was purchased by Richardson in 1936. Exterior, Sid W. Richardson Residence | MAYNARD L. PARKER (1900-1976) | ca.1947 | Courtesy of The Huntington Library, San Marino, California “[Mr. Richardson] enjoyed [San Jose Island] because he could go down there and get away from everything and Perry [Sid’s nephew] liked that because he’d go down there and he liked to fish [...]

Opening September 14, 2019, A Fortune in Oils: Sid Richardson's Personal Collection is a special exhibition that honors Sid Williams Richardson (1891-1959), who left a legacy through his personal collection of western masterworks and the foundation he established in 1947. Woven through the letters, photographs, publications, and his beloved paintings on display is the story of a plain-spoken, unpretentious, and intensely private man whose wealth, earned principally from West Texas petroleum, enabled him to pursue his interests as a cattleman, philanthropist, and collector of paintings. Peter Hurd, Portrait of Sid Richardson, 1958, Oil on panel, 32 x 48 inches [...]

Although Remington spent his childhood growing up in rural Ogdenburg, New York, as a young man he quickly made his way to New York City where he spent most of his career. As he matured, Remington divided his time between the city and the country, which in this case was his childhood home in a region of New York state that's referred to as the North Country. By 1900, he had purchased an island in the North Country on the St. Lawrence River, an island he called Ingleneuk. Chippewa Bay, Frederic Remington Art Museum “I am in Chippewa Bay 10 [...]

In the spring of 1878, Remington wrote to his Uncle Horace Sackrider, “I am going to try and get into Cornell College this coming June and if I succeed will be a Journalist. I mean to study for an artist anyhow, whether I ever make a success of it or not.” Unfortunately for Remington, Cornell University did not have a journalism department at that time. Fortunately for us, Remington enrolled in the newly created School of Fine Arts at Yale instead. Our blog featured a previous post about Remington’s time at Yale, which was short. His collegiate career last about [...]

Remington loved canoeing. Despite his weight gain in his later years, which kept him from his love of horse riding, he quipped that he could always float. “If properly equipped, a man who sits at a desk the year through can find no happier days than he will in his canoe when the still waters run through the dark forests and the rapid boils below.” – Remington, 1893 Ingleneuk, Photo Album (Frederic Remington with Canoe), Frederic Remington Art Museum In the summer of 1892, Remington purchased a canoe and embarked on a 50 mile journey paddling the Oswegatchie [...]

*The following is part of a series of blog posts researched and written by Dr. Mark Thistlethwaite, Kay and Velma Kimbell Chair of Art History TCU School of Art, and guest curator of SRM’s special exhibit Another Frontier: Frederic Remington’s East. On a recent return flight to DFW, the Airbus in which I was a passenger encountered, in the pilot’s words, “moderate turbulence” (most of us onboard would not have used such an understated description). Sitting next to a window over an engine I was able to hear not only its powerful thrusts, but also the sounds of the mighty winds buffeting [...]

*The following is part of a series of blog posts researched and written by Dr. Mark Thistlethwaite, Kay and Velma Kimbell Chair of Art History TCU School of Art, and guest curator of SRM’s special exhibit Another Frontier: Frederic Remington’s East. The inclusion of paintings by Childe Hassam, Willard Metcalf, and Anna Richards Brewster in Another Frontier: Frederic Remington’s East signals an intriguing but understudied aspect of Remington’s life: his personal art collection. While not a large collection, little is known how and when he acquired the art objects usually on view in the Frederic Remington Art Museum in Ogdensburg, New York. [...]

Without a doubt, the iconic Western artist Frederic Remington was a New Yorker. He was born in Canton and raised in Ogdensburg, both small towns in Remington’s beloved North Country. Like many artists of his day, he developed his professional life in New York City, having lived in Brooklyn and Manhattan before purchasing a house in New Rochelle, a suburb of the Big Apple. Remington and Beauty at Endion. FRAM 1918.76.152.13 Frederic and Eva named their new home Endion (pronounced ahn-dy-yon), a Chippewa word meaning "my home" or "place where I live." It’s hard to imagine that the [...]

*The following is part of a series of blog posts researched and written by Dr. Mark Thistlethwaite, Kay and Velma Kimbell Chair of Art History TCU School of Art, and guest curator of SRM’s special exhibit Another Frontier: Frederic Remington’s East. Frederic Remington | The End of the Day | ca. 1904 | Oil on canvas | Frederic Remington Art Museum, Ogdensburg, NY Frederic Remington | The Fall of the Cowboy | 1895 | Oil on canvas | Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, Amon G. Carter Collection Frederic Remington’s evocative The End of the [...]