What an Unbranded Cow Has Cost . Frederic Remington
1895
oil on canvas
71.3 × 89.2 cm (28.1 × 35.1 in)
Yale University Art Gallery
Accession number 1977.114
Credit line Gift of Thomas M. Evans, B.A. 1931
Notes Loosely inspired by the "cattle wars" of the 1880s and 1890s, in which wealthy cattle barons gradually displaced independent homesteaders and small-scale ranchers, Frederic Remington's painting depicts the deadly aftermath of a shootout over the ownership of an unbranded cow. The painting illustrated a nostalgic article in Harper's Monthly by Remington's friend Owen Wister about the history of cowboys, whom Wister likened to Anglo-Saxon knights. Remington and Wister's glorification of the American cowboy as a symbol of Anglo-Saxon culture was a response to the perceived threat represented by increasing immigration. Remington sought to celebrate the cowpuncher, but the mournful tone of this painting instead affirms that this mythic figure and his frontier world were vanishing.
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