»those eastern men of the west« frederic remington‘s the fall of the cowboy

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»Those Eastern Men of the West« Frederic Remington‘s Frederic Remington‘s The Fall of the Cowboy The Fall of the Cowboy and the Aesthetic Reconstruction of the American West and the Aesthetic Reconstruction of the American West Stefan Brandt (University of Siegen/ Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) Visual Arts in the West Annual Conference of the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Associations Albuquerque, New Mexico February 14-17, 2007

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»Those Eastern Men of the West« Frederic Remington‘s The Fall of the Cowboy and the Aesthetic Reconstruction of the American West. Visual Arts in the West – Annual Conference of the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Associations Albuquerque, New Mexico February 14-17, 2007. Stefan Brandt - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Page 1: »Those Eastern Men of the West« Frederic Remington‘s  The Fall of the Cowboy

»Those Eastern Men of the West«Frederic Remington‘s Frederic Remington‘s The Fall of the CowboyThe Fall of the Cowboy

and the Aesthetic Reconstruction of the American Westand the Aesthetic Reconstruction of the American West

Stefan Brandt(University of Siegen/Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)

Visual Arts in the West – Annual Conference of the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Associations

Albuquerque, New MexicoFebruary 14-17, 2007

Page 2: »Those Eastern Men of the West« Frederic Remington‘s  The Fall of the Cowboy

I. Mystification of the ›Old West‹the ›Old West‹The Last Cavalier (1895)

II. Progress and CrisisWhat an Unbranded Cow Has Cost (1895)

III. Decline and Rebirth The Fall of the Cowboy (1895)

Page 3: »Those Eastern Men of the West« Frederic Remington‘s  The Fall of the Cowboy

I. Mystification of the ›Old West‹the ›Old West‹

Frederic Remington, The Last Cavalier (1895)

»It’s so very sad and so very near my private heart.« Owen Wister, August 1895

»You must do it again. Then we shall have a poem much better and much more national than Hiawatha or Evangeline.« Owen Wister, ibd.

»The Last Cavalier will haunt me forever. He inhabits a Past into which I withdraw and mourn.« Owen Wister, ibd.

»The Evolution of the Cow-puncher« (Owen Wister, 1895)

Page 4: »Those Eastern Men of the West« Frederic Remington‘s  The Fall of the Cowboy
Page 5: »Those Eastern Men of the West« Frederic Remington‘s  The Fall of the Cowboy

Literary ColonizationThe Bookman: An Illustrated Literary Journal (7, 1898)

Page 6: »Those Eastern Men of the West« Frederic Remington‘s  The Fall of the Cowboy

»The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward explain American development.«

Frederick J. Turner, »The Significance of the Frontier in American History« (1893)

»The true point of view in the history of this nation is not the Atlantic coast, it is the Great West.«

Frederick J. Turner, ibd.

»The vast movement by which this continent was conquered and peopled cannot be rightly understood if considered solely by itself. It was the crowning and greatest achievement of a series of mighty movements, and it must be taken in connection with them. Its true significance will be lost unless we grasp [...] the past race-history of the nations who took part there in.«

Theodore Roosevelt, The Winning of the West (1889)

Frontier-Thesis

Page 7: »Those Eastern Men of the West« Frederic Remington‘s  The Fall of the Cowboy

»Viking portion«

Owen Wister, »The Evolution of the Cow-puncher« (1895)

»Throughout his career it has been his love to push further into the wilderness, and his fate to serve larger causes than his own.«

Owen Wister, ibd. (1895)

The Anglo-Saxon as Prototype of the Frontiersman

Page 8: »Those Eastern Men of the West« Frederic Remington‘s  The Fall of the Cowboy

The Anglo-Saxon as Prototype of the Frontiersman

»In personal daring and in skill as to the horse, the knight and the cowboy are nothing but the same Saxon of different environments, the nobleman in London and the nobleman in Texas.«

Owen Wister, »The Evolution of the Cow-puncher« (1895)

Page 9: »Those Eastern Men of the West« Frederic Remington‘s  The Fall of the Cowboy

II. Progress and Crisis

F. Remington, The Last Stand (1890)

»The cow-puncher’s playground in those first glorious days of his prosperity included battle and murder and sudden death as everyday matters. From 1865 to 1877 in Texas he fought his way with knife and gun, and any hour of the twenty-four might see him flattened behind the rocks among the whiz of bullets and the flight of arrows, or dragged bloody and folded together from some adobe hovel.« Owen Wister, »The Evolution of the Cow-puncher« (1895)

F. Remington, What an Unbranded Cow Has Cost (1895)

»Ah, progress is truly a wonder!«

Page 10: »Those Eastern Men of the West« Frederic Remington‘s  The Fall of the Cowboy

III. Decline and Rebirth

»These hermited horsemen would dismount in camp at nightfall and lie looking at the stars, or else squat about the fire conversing with crude sombreness of brands and horses and cows, speaking of humans when they referred to men. To-day they are still to be found in New Mexico, their last domain.« Owen Wister, »The Evolution of the Cow-puncher« (1895)

F. Remington, The Fall of the Cowboy (1895)

Page 11: »Those Eastern Men of the West« Frederic Remington‘s  The Fall of the Cowboy

III. Decline and Rebirth

F. Remington, The Fall of the Cowboy (1895) F. Remington, The End of the Day (1904)

F. Remington, The Last March (1906)

Page 12: »Those Eastern Men of the West« Frederic Remington‘s  The Fall of the Cowboy

»Three things swept him away, the exhausting of the virgin pastures, the coming of the wire fence, and Mr. Armour of Chicago, who set the price of beef to suit himself.«

Owen Wister, »The Evolution of the Cow-puncher« (1895)

»Such is the story of the cow-puncher, the American descendant of Saxon ancestry.«Owen Wister, »The Evolution of the Cow-puncher« (1895)

»A Plea For Romantic Fiction«Frank Norris (1901)

Page 13: »Those Eastern Men of the West« Frederic Remington‘s  The Fall of the Cowboy