Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary and Analysis

"Remington" opens showing an aspiring young artist in Kansas City, having wasted half his $9,000 inheritance on sheep ranching and saloon owning and being abandoned by his wife of three months, taking heart from the sale of a canvas, buying a mare for $50 on a street corner, and riding off into the sunset. Man or horseback in the Old West becomes the formula for Frederick Sackrider Remington's coming success as a commercial artist. Born in Canton, NY, in 1861, son of a Union cavalry officer, Freddie shows artistic talent in military school, enrolls in Yale University's School of Fine Arts, but drops out when his father dies after three semesters, having picked up Yale mannerisms and the discipline of studying good pictures and drawing from nature. Remington's contention he is a self-taught painter thus is largely true. Failing to click in...