Shotgun Hospitality

Inscriptions

Signed and dated, lower right: Frederic Remington / 1908

Label

Although Remington achieved unprecedented success as an illustrator of the American West early in his career, he did not receive critical attention as a painter until his final years. Shotgun Hospitality, completed a year before his death, reflects the changes in Remington’s style that brought him wider critical acclaim while appealing to an audience eager for nostalgic images of life in the American West. Rather than focusing strictly on action and narrative detail, this enigmatic nighttime scene explores mood, atmosphere, and the psychological tension surrounding an encounter between an independent or “shotgun” freighter, who travels alone on the prairie transporting cargo, and three Plains Native Americans. The painting is virtuosic and bold in its daring color scheme, dramatic lighting effects, and imposing central placement of one of the figure’s deeply shadowed back. We are left to surmise this individual’s critically important facial expression and the next exchange in this prairie encounter.

From the 2019 exhibition American Art, Colonial to Modern, curated by Barbara J. MacAdam, Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art

Course History

WRIT 5, Expository Writing, Carl Thum, Winter 2013

WRIT 5, The View from the Balcony: Learning How You Learn, Prudence Merton, Winter 2014

WRIT 5, Democracy in America, Wendy Piper, Winter 2015

ENGL 52, Vox Clamantis: Wilderness in 19th Century American Literature, Michael Chaney, Winter 2020

Creative Writing 10.01, Writing and Reading Fiction, Katherine Crouch, Winter 2024

Anthropology 73.01, Main Currents in Anthropology, Sienna Craig, Spring 2024

Exhibition History

American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 9-December 9, 2007.

American Art, Colonial to Modern, Israel Sack Gallery and Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26, 2019-January 20, 2020.

Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, October 19, 2015-June 1, 2018.

Carpenter Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 28, 1978- .

Carpenter Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 12, 1980-June 15, 1981.

Director's Choice, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 10-July 10, 1966.

Frederic Remington Paintings, Knoedler Gallery, New York, New York, December 12, 1908-January 1909.

Frederic Remington Retrospective, Whitney Gallery of Western Art, Cody, Wyoming, May 1-September 1974.

Frederic Remington: A Retrospective Exhibit of Painting and Sculpture, Paine Art Center and Arboretum, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, August 1-September 24, 1967; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 11-November 12, 1967; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, December 2-December 31, 1967.

Frederic Remington: The Color of Night, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, April 6-July 6, 2003; Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma, August 10-November 9, 2003; Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, December 13, 2003-March 14, 2004.

Frederic Remington: The Late Years, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, July 11-August 30, 1981.

How The West was Won, Wildenstein & Co. Galleries, New York City, New York, March 21-June 21, 1968.

Images of the West: Selections from the Permanent Collection, MALS 190, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 15-August 28, 1994.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 13, 2004-May 8, 2007.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 20, 2001-February 1, 2003.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 21, 1995-June 22, 1997.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 2, 2009-present.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 1-November 20, 1993.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 16, 1997-August 27, 2000.

Light in Art, Jaffe-Friede, Strauss and Barrows Galleries, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 2, 1977-January 29, 1978.

Natural Forces: Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, March 15-June 7, 2020; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine, July 1-September 27, 2020; Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, October 31, 2020-January 24, 2021.

Night Visions: Nocturnes in American Art, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, June 25-October 18, 2015.

Paintings and Sculpture by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, New Orleans Musuem of Art, New Orleans, Louisianna, November 18, 1979-February 3, 1980.

Strauss Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 1973.

The American West: l'arte della frontiera americana 1830-1920, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma, Italy, December 11, 1993-February 28, 1994.

The Dartmouth Collection: 19th and 20th Century Paintings, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 17-November 6, 1982.

Work of Frederic Remington, Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth, Texas, January 15-March 18, 1973.

Publication History

Edited by Kellie Keto, Remington: The Years of Critical Acclaim, Santa Fe, NM: Gerald Peters Gallery, 1998, 131 pp., p. 70, ill. p.71.

Alexander Nemerov, Frederic Remington & Turn-of-the-century America, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995, 244 p., ill.

Rebecca Bailey, What Is There to Teach About Art?, Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, Volume 88, Number 8, May 1996, South Burlington: The Lane Press Inc., 1996, pp.36-45, ill. p. 44

Peter H. Hassrich, Melissa J. Webster, Frederic Remington: A Catalogue Raisonne, Cody, Wyoming: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, p. 824, illus. #2869, 1996

Federica Pirani e Maria Elisa Tittoni, The American West: l'arte della frontiera americana 1830-1920, Venezia: Marsilio Editori, 1993, ill. p. 183.

William H. Truettner, ed., The West as America: Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier, 1820-1920; Published for the National Museum of American Art by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991. (In conjunction with exhibition organized by the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

AMERICAN ART, Winter/Spring 1991, Volume 5, Numbers 1-2, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, with Oxford University Press; p. 52.

David Murphy, The Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth," Dartmouth Review, March 7, 1990, Vol. 10, Issue 18, ill. p.9.

Cover of Interciencia, May/June 1988, Vol.13, No.3.

Barbara J. MacAdam, American Paintings in the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Antiques, November 1985, ill. p.1026.

Peter H. Hessrick, Frederic Remington: The Late Works, Denver, Colorado: Denver Art Museum, 1981, ill. p.48-49.

Peter H. Hessrick, Frederic Remington, Fort Worth, Texas: Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, 1973, no.76, ill. p.42.

Robert Farmer, Remington Portfolio-Epilogue: Indian Painting Project by Dartmouth, Watertown Daily Times, Watertown, New York, December 1970.

Dr. Watson Parker, Frederic Remington, Oshkosh, Wisconsin: Paine Art Center and Arboretum, 1967, no.61, ill.

Catalogue of Portraits, and other works of Art at Dartmouth College, Hanover: Dartmouth College, 1932, p. 51, no. 223.

M. Knoedler & Co., Paintings by Frederic Remington, New York, 1908, no. 6.

Brian W.Dippie, The Frederick Remington Art Museum Collection, Ogdensburg, New York: Frederick Remington Art Museum, Distributed by Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, NY, 2001, 264 pp., ill. p.227.

Nancy K. Anderson, et al, Frederic Remington: The Color of Night (Exhibition Catalogue), Washington, DC: The National Gallery of Art, 2003, 228 pp., color ill. p. 170 and cropped version across from the Forward.

Barbara J. MacAdam, Marks of Distinction, Two Hundred Years of American Drawings and Watercolors from the Hood Museum of Art, Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills Press, 2005, pp. 15-16, ill. pp. 16, fig. 7.

Barbara J. MacAdam, American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Muesum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2007, p. 76-77, no. 53.

William Chapman Sharpe, New York Nocturne: The City After Dark in Literature, Painting, and Photography, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008, p. 168, ill., fig. 3.16.

Toby Thompson, Western Art & Architecture, Perspective: Frederic Remington (1861-1909), Bozeman, Montana: JD Publishing, LLC, 2013, ill. p. 110.

Joachim Homann, Night Vision: Nocturnes in American Art, 1860-1960, Munich, London, New York: Delmonico Books / Prestel, 2016, 176 pp., ill. p. 83.

Margaret C. Adler, et al., Homer

Remington, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, in association with with the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, the Denver Art Museum, and the Portland Museum of Art, Maine, 2020, ill. p. 143, cat. no. 73.

Provenance

Purchased by Judge Horace Russell from Knoedler Gallery, New York for Dartmouth College in 1908.

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