Every school morning we read a poem, generally by one poet per term. This term it’s Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and as part of that we’re finally reading the copy of The Song of Hiawatha that’s been on my shelf for years. I never noticed before but it’s illustrated with little sketches by Frederic Remington, the painter of the Old West who was born in Canton, New York. Fittingly the kids got to learn more about Remington on Saturday because The Frederic Remington Art Museum is located in Ogdensburg, just a few blocks from where we are living presently.

The occasion for our museum visit was a reception for the opening of the Annual Elementary Art Exhibit. Museum admission was free and there was a lovely spread of refreshments, as well as sketching materials available in the gallery. We met some friends there and it was nice to see several of the kids take a stab at sketching some of the artworks.

Frederic Remington (1861-1909) became famous by illustrating for popular magazines. According to the biographical info posted at the museum, he worked hard to make accurate pictures, researching in books, on the field, and through personal correspondence. His work depicts “the spirit of the American cowboy, the frontier cavalry soldier, and the determined Native American warrior,” capturing the American Wild West that was already a thing of the past. Besides magazine illustrations he created fine art paintings and bronze sculptures with a real sense of movement. We appreciated seeing a wide variety of Remington’s work at the museum.

In an upstairs room there were other sculptures on display, these ones by Sally James Farnham (1869-1943), a native of Ogdensburg. She was mentored by Remington and after his death she oversaw the production of his last two sculptures. One of her sculptures in the museum is of Joan of Arc beside her horse. I was also partial to a small sculpture of two elephants called “Spring in the Jungle.”

The kids enjoyed their outing to the museum and the girls hope to join some homeschool art classes there. If that works out, I’m sure they’ll be mentioned on the blog in future!