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On the Southern Plains

1907
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 767
One of Remington’s favorite themes was the American soldier in the West, of whom he wrote, "His heroism is called duty, and it probably is." Here, soldiers led by a scout in buckskin thunder across the frontier toward an unseen adversary. Although Remington titled the painting "Cavalry in Sixties" in his diary, the uniforms and weapons date variously from the Civil War into the 1870s. The artist departed from reality in other details as well—for example, positioning the cavalry as a vibrant mass rather than in a straight horizontal line, which was the usual attack formation.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: On the Southern Plains
  • Artist: Frederic Remington (American, Canton, New York 1861–1909 Ridgefield, Connecticut)
  • Date: 1907
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 30 1/8 x 51 1/8in. (76.5 x 129.9cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of Several Gentlemen, 1911
  • Object Number: 11.192
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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4586. On the Southern Plains

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