Frederic’s
Remington Controversial Sculpture of
Indian
Rider Carrying Scalp on Auction Block

It’s
an image that today would be considered gory as well as racist: an
Indian on horseback brandishing the scalp of a freshly killed enemy.
But
in the early 1900s this bronze case of Frederic Remington’s
"The Scale" was presented annually to the Brooklyn public
school with the best sport’s record.

SELF-PORTRAIT
ON A HORSE by Frederic Remington
In
December it was featured on The History Channel and was being auctioned
off an eBay until the end of 2000 with bids starting at $250,000.
Born
in 1861, Remington was an illustrator, sculptor and journalist whose
depictions of cowboys and Indians helped burnish the legend of the
wild West. His artwork remains widely exhibited today, with pieces on
display from the White House to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Looked
at in Context
Experts
said "The Scalp" must be seen in the context of its time.
Laura
Foster, curator of the Frederic Remington Art Museum in Ogdensburg,
N.Y., said Remington’s career "was based on the fascination of
the Eastern public with the idea of the American frontier and the
vanishing, nearly extinct species of the wild native American."
"Today,
certainly, people have an entirely different view," Foster said.
"In Remington’s time the Eastern public was thinking of Native
Americans like stuffed heads. …It was generally expected that their
culture would not survive, due to manifest destiny."
Alexander
Nemerov, a professor of art history at Stanford University and the
author of "Frederic Remington and Turn-of-the-Century
America," noted that Remington lived in New Rochelle, N.Y. when
he created "The Scalp".
"What’s
most interesting is to think about Remington as someone who lived in
New York City area … and to see his works as inventions or
fabrications of the West that speak more to the needs and interests of
an urban audience," he said.
One
of 11
The
sculpture that is being auctioned on eBay was one of 11 casts by the
Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co. from 1898 to 1900. The castings retailed for
$325 – a considerable sum at the time.
Cast
No. 5 was purchased by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper and was
given each year to a Brooklyn public school as an athletic trophy. A
brass plate affixed to its base reads: Presented by the Brooklyn Daily
Eagle to be held by that Brooklyn school which shall annually be
determined by the Public Schools Athletic League to have shown the
highest standing in athletics during the year."
References
to the trophy can be found in the newspaper’s archives up to 1909,
when it was won by P.S. 127. At some point, rough handling by
schoolboys cost the horse its tail.
It
is unclear where the sculpture was during much of the 20th
century.
"It
basically just disappeared," said Cameron Whiteman, art curator
at Butterfield’s Auctioneers, which assembled eBay/History Channel
collection. "it just showed up in Florida much later."
The
sculpture’s current owner is auctioning it off anonymously, Whiteman
said.
The
sculpture is now on loan to the Remington Art Museum, where, Foster
said, people "just eat it up".
But
some viewers may not notice just what the bare-chested brave is
holding in his upraised hand.
Foster
said the museum’s shop sells reproductions of the sculpture.
"Sometimes people get it home then bring it back," she said.
"They are forced to look at it with a more steady gaze when it’s
in their own home."