The Broncho Buster

Frederic Remington

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Remington’s first sculpture, The Broncho Buster, was celebrated as an expressive rendering of an iconic American cowboy—an epic and "authentic" man hardened by experience. Here, the White cowboy singlehandedly tames a wild horse, a metaphor for his confident dominion over nature and, by extension, Euro-American colonization of Indigenous lands. In his quest for perfection, Remington produced this enlarged version of his most popular sculpture during the last year of his life, working in a looser and broader style. He died after casting the revised plaster, but before any bronzes were produced. Read a Native Perspective on this work.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art