The Broncho Buster

"The Broncho Buster," Remington's first sculpture, and the first sculpture of a cowboy cast in bronze, was copyrighted in October 1895. He adapted the subject, a cowboy breaking in a rearing horse, from his drawing "Pitching Broncho," published in "Harper's Weekly" on April 30, 1892. The rough-and-ready drama Remington captured in his paintings carried over to this action sculpture, and the statuette earned quick appreciation as an iconic rendering of the White cowboy. The many bronze statuettes in "The Broncho Buster" edition were first sand-cast at the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company, and later, after 1900, lost-wax cast at Roman Bronze Works. Following her husband's death in 1909, Eva Remington (1859-1918) oversaw the production of additional bronzes from foundry molds, but because of the sculptor's attention to quality in the casting and coloring processes, estate bronzes lack the refinement and original flair for detail of the lifetime casts. This "Broncho Buster," although cast posthumously, is significant, as it is the last one—number 214—recorded in the Roman Bronze Works ledger book on December 31, 1918.