Fight Over the Waterhole

Biography

Frederic Remington was not only painter but also a sculptor and a writer. He was born in Canton, New York, in 1861. At the age of 15 he was sent to a military academy, but didn't last long there. He entered Yale University at the age of 16, but also abandoned it in the pursuit to explore the Great Plains of the American terrain.

The Influences

When Frederic Remington painted, every picture was inspired by a journey. Whether by land or sea, Frederic experienced the journey first in order to experience the true feeling and nature of the subject he was about to paint.

These were the words the artist himself used while on one of his exploratory journeys.

"I knew the wild riders and the vacant land were about to vanish forever, and the more I considered the subject, the bigger the forever loom…I began to try to record some facts around me, and the more I looked, the more the panorama unfolded." [i]

Although Remington focused on nature and the wild in general, he was influenced a great deal by battles and  between different groups of people. One such example of his interest in war is best seen in Fight for the Water Hole.  He found this subject interesting enough  to paint and within it he depicts the foolish battles that we humans engage in. He was also commissioned to paint the occurrence down in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.