Nineteenth-century artist Frederic Remington (1861-1909) is today most recognized for his American western scenes of the frontier. Paintings and sculptures of military men, Native Americans, cowboys, violent scuffles, ranches and other wild events on the Western front were Remington’s chosen subject, and ultimately his life’s work. Post-civil war America gave way to drastic institutional shifts in almost all cultural realms. The changing makeup of American industry, societal structure, and the economy disrupted the comfortable known of the Easterners. These shifts destabilized and redefined gender roles, specifically in masculine identities.  The American West offered men, like Remington to seek untouched and wild land. It was there, not the East, that men could reclaim success and a satisfying sense of self.  Remington dynamically shapes the contemporary American identity by using the equestrian figure, like the bronze sculpture, The Bronco Buster (1895, Smith College Museum of Art) (fig.1). Through this figure, Remington is able to draw upon earlier and contemporary sources in order to create a figure that is an American myth and hero. The wild and manly equestrian demonstrated through the cowboy is a reaction and reflection of the desired American hero.       In the last half of the nineteenth century, America once formed on a collection of small, separated communities, shifted from disparate towns and cities to a more centralized society. The influence of industrialization resulted in widespread economic development, which effectively distributed wealth.  This shift led to drastic cultural changes in the previously stagnant American social structure. Old families that had thrived since colonial times were tremendously displeased at the competition the new wealth brought both in business and in social order. White writes, “The rise of the new rich upset the leisured world of old families of high social standing.” ^[1] In addition to this new economic class, an increase of immigrants, primarily Catholic (as opposed to the overwhelmingly Protestant America) from European countries disputed the enjoyed homogeneity that previously helped to stabilize the nation. During this time of change, expectations of men were altered and enforced. Americans boys were bred to grow up to be serious, tough, and disciplined.  The Groton, a prestigious private school, as White recounts about an “active work life” and the administration “spoke of boys standing on their own feet, developing manly attitudes and learned to fend for themselves in the rough and tumble game of life.”  ^[2]American schools were not teaching these “manly attitudes” to promote masculinity but to defend it against what many thought was a time of “feminization” of America.  Michael Kimmel in his book, Manhood in America: A Cultural History, writes that, “his sense of himself as a man was in constant need of demonstration.”^[3]  Kimmel continues state that, “…men strove to build themselves into powerful machines capable of winning any contest, they ran away to work or to seek out the frontier, and they excluded others from equal opportunity work to go to school and to vote.” Because of the shift in societal makeup, men needed to in a sense prove their superiority. In his art, Remington confronts and silences any notion of masculine vulnerability. Remington identifies a masculine type, the cowboy. The formal qualities of the bronze The Bronco Buster create a vision of the ideal American man. Remington’s The Bronco Buster (sometimes referred to as The Bucking Bronco) is bronze sculpture, (whole: 23 in.; 58.42 cm, height) originally cast in 1895. This specific piece examined for this argument however, was cast in 1932 and is part of the Mead Art Museum Collection at Amherst College. The sculpture is quite small, perhaps best suited for a surface top, but none the less powerful and full of movement. It is not surprising Remington choose to include a bronco in Bronco Buster first sculpture, the subject fascinated him. In 1889 the artist said, “Only those who have ridden a bronco for the first time it was saddled, or have lived through a railroad accident can form any conception of solemnity of such experiences. Few Easterner people appreciate the sky-rocket bounds and the grunts and stiff legged striking”. ^[4]  The subject, composition and texture reinforce the idea of the powerful, masculine, and almost mythological American type. The Bronco Buster depicts a man, riding a large, bucking horse. The human figure is adorned with all of the necessary cowboy icons. The hat on his head folds back slightly with the movement of the horse, a gun is strapped around his waist, sharp spurs are attached to his boots and the figure sits upon a hefty saddle. With one hand the man holds tightly to the reins as the other hand lifts a loaded whip, ready to strike.  Although the horse is bucking, a movement that often throws riders off, the figure leans forward in a state of balance. The face of the man is sharp, and highlighted by pronounced, angular jaw bones. A beard covers his mouth and parts of his cheeks. His eyes concentrate at a downward point, perhaps to the horses head. Despite the aggressive actions, the figure’s expression is blank, controlled, and unavailable. The horse figure in Bronco Buster is completely subordinate to the power of his master. The creature stands on two feet, with the opposite two lifted aggressively upward. The horse’s mouth is open, suggesting sound, perhaps a yelp from the whip or from the pulled reins. Remington textured and worked the bronze to show the impressive anatomy of the beast. Several undulating indentations suggest the rib cage. The raised and curving surface yields large, working muscles, especially around the legs. The smaller master on the horse, unlike his animal partner, is covered in clothing, showing no anatomical strength. The man’s strength over nature comes from human articles that adorn him, for instance, the gun, the spurs and the reigns. In these two connected figures, Remington shows the difference between man and beast. The power of the man comes from his intellect and invention, while the beast relies on brute force.  In The Bronco Buster Remington represents man in absolute control over the wild. In order to create this dynamic bronze, Remington might have been looking to other contemporary sources. In the Bronco Buster, Remington may have been aware of the French sculptor, Antoine-Louis Barye, perhaps drawing from his precedence. Barye is recognized for his provocative subject matter which often depicted violent animal fight scenes, predator and prey, and human on human struggles. For this argument we will focus specifically on Arab Horseman Killing a Lion, (1830s Smith College Museum of Art). Arab Horseman depicts a man on top of a bucking horse. The horse rears over the fallen lion, and the rider plunges a long spear into the beast. In this bronze we see similarities to Remington’s work. A man dressed in exotic, presumably Arab clothing commands a powerful horse. The robust legs and chest of the horse suggest a kind of animalistic durability. From one angle (from the view looking at the back of the lion where the man’s face is out of view) the viewer gets the best understanding of the capabilities of this horse. The body of the animal stretches from one point of the base to the other, spanning the entire composition of the bronze. The back legs appear to be unbalanced as the front prance forward. The horses’ face rears up, mouth open, a harness attached to its jaw.  Despite the beauty and spirit of the horse, we are reminded in the emptiness of the expression and in the  presence of the harness that this beast is not in control, his rider is. The intensity of the horse’s movement is complemented by the coolness and control of the equestrian figure. With one hand, he holds onto his animal and with the other he stabs the lion that lies below. These actions suggest a kind of skill and control. In the Arab Horsemen Barye creates a strategic composition, suggesting the movement of power. The man is situated above the animals dictates the situation. The next position is the horse controlled by his master and assisting him in the attack. The lion, the victim, below is conquered by to the man and his horse. Remington looked to the earlier French sculpture tradition in order to create Bronco Buster. As in Remington’s bronze, Barye’s Arab Horseman focuses on man’s struggle and success over the wild. Barye incorporated an equestrian type, like the Arab Horseman and Remington translated this Arab man into the figure in Bronco Buster.  Remington was aware of the impressive tradition of the equestrian figure and used it to represent an inspiring and masculine American hero. For the creation of Bronco Buster, Remington may have looked to other influences within American culture. At this time, Americans were enamored with tales of the West.  Although the pioneer movement was over by this time people were still intrigued by frontier heroes. Scholar Brian Dippie writes, “the frontier adventure might be over, but a fascination with the frontier heroes lived.”^[5]  “Buffalo Bill” Cody began his  Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in 1883. The program was a theatrical showcase of culture and entertainment from the American frontier. Dippie describes it as, “an arena entertainment with buffalo and Indians and much else…Buffalo Bill personified the ideal plainsman, the buckskin-clad hunter hero of the frontier days. ^[6] The show also included livestock performances, bronco riding, and other skills ranching skills from the frontier.  The company of Buffalo Bill was widely popular and traveled throughout the US, to Europe, and appeared at the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. Buffalo Bill represented a man of the frontier, whose traits were described by contemporaries as “coarseness and strength” and “dominant individualism.” ^[7]  Remington was aware of Buffalo Bill and produced work for him including illustrations for Cody’s “Story of the Wild West” in 1888.  While on a trip to London, Remington and Cody met again, and their friendship started there. From this visit Remington would produce several illustrations of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West performances and In the Limelight, (fig. 3)a painting of Cody on horseback in a large crowded arena. For the creation of Bronco Buster it is likely that Remington referenced some of what he saw at the Wild West show. Although it would be difficult to prove, one might ask if perhaps the Bronco Buster is perhaps one of Cody’s performers. In addition to Buffalo Bill Cody, Remington perhaps referenced other American artists in his sculpture. Remington may have looked to photography by Eadweard Muybridge, an English born American artist for the Bronco Buster. Muybridge is described as being, “the first to analyze motion successfully by using a sequence of photographs and resynthesizing them to produce moving pictures on a screen.”^[8]  He was able to take photos with a quick shutter speed him to capturing the precise movements of bodies in motion. Muybridge developed a series of studies called, “Animal Locomotion” one of which, and perhaps his most famous is of a horse trotting. (fig.4) As the viewer moves through each still, one can see each individual motion of the trot. There is another horse still in “Animal Locomotion” that depicts a horse bucking and moving its front and back legs. Muybridge’s work was important at the end of the nineteenth century, and it is likely that Remington was aware of his work. Movement is very important in the  The Bronco Buster and in order to correctly portray this movement Remington could have consulted Muybridge’s “Animal Locomotion.”  If Remington did use photography in the Bronco Buster as a reference, it would not be the first time the artist did so. For example, in his painting, Maj. General Leonard Wood USA (1909, West Point Museum) Remington referenced an earlier photograph of the General of his horse. Frederic Remington’s bronze Bronco Buster is a sculpture that reflects the fascinations of American society. The West offered people an impressionable frontier; a place where they could project their desired American identities and hoped for heroes. The West represented opportunity, and had a rough masculine aura.  Remington creates a vision of the American hero in his Bronco Buster. The artist looked to French tradition, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, and contemporary photography in order to perfect his sculpture. The Bronco Buster is a symbol of man’s feat over nature, and America’s feat over all.       ^[1].Edward G. White. The Eastern Establishment and the Western Experience; The West of Frederic Remington, Theodore Roosevelt, and Owen Wister. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968. 12. ^[2] White, Eastern, 14 ^[3] Michael S. Kimmel Manhood in America: A Cultural History. New York: Free Press, 1996.40. ^[4] Brian Dippie. The Frederic Remington Art Museum Collection. 2001. 112. ^[5]Thayer Tolles,, Thomas Brent Smith, Carol Clark, Brian W. Dippie, Peter H. Hassrick, Karen Lemmey, and Jessica Murphy. The American West in Bronze, 1850-1925. 2013. 14. ^[6]Tolles, American West, 15 ^[7] Tolles, American West, 16 ^[8] J. P. Ward. “Muybridge, Eadweard.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed December 19, 2014,http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T060619.