The Old Dragoons of 1850

The Old Dragoons of 1850 is another feat of Frederic Remington’s technical achievement. Stretching, twisting men and horses move at top speed, depicted by Remington in an arrested moment in time. The complex sculpture suggests the chaos of eyewitness observation, yet it also achieves the choreographed monumentality and unity of synthetic composition. Remington designed his three-dimensional works after the drawings and photographs he made on his trips to the West, and the ability to freeze motion photographically undoubtedly fed the force and dynamism of his sculpture.