Knights of the Plains, Decor for the Home: Conceptualizing the Cowboy in Tabletop Bronzes and Western Novels of Turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century America

Abstract

This thesis traces the development of Frederic Remington and Owen Wister’s conceptions of the American cowboy by placing key cultural works in historical context. The first chapter centers on a discussion of Wister’s 1895 article, “The Evolution of the Cow-Puncher,” with illustrations by Remington, notably, The Last Cavalier. This chapter considers how Remington and Wister’s idea of the cowboy in this moment draws on narratives of a knightly past and questions if Remington’s sculpture, The Broncho Buster, created the same year, can also be viewed as a knightly figure. The second chapter examines how Remington and Wister’s depictions of the cowboy changed from 1895 to 1902, through an analysis of two works by created the artist and author in the later year: Wister’s The Virginian and Remington’s Coming Through the Rye. This thesis argues that Remington and Wister worked concurrently to construct the ideal of the cowboy as an integral part of U. S. national identity. At certain points, artists and authors rooted the cowboy in a European cultural past as a version of the medieval knight or chivalrous cavalier. In capitalizing on this relationship, the cowboy becomes positioned as heir to European warriors of the past, a narrative which filled a gap for the young American nation seeking to form its own sense of cultural heritage. The means by which these artists and authors conveyed the idea of the cowboy – through tabletop bronzes and novels – shows how culture cultivated in private informs public culture at large.