Hunting the [Virginia] Deer

This is a rare, large folio chromolithograph from the work Sport or Fishing and Shooting. The work was edited by A. C. Gould and published in Boston in 1869 by Bradlee Whidden. The plates were after illustrations by Frederic Remington, A. B. Frost, Fred Cozzens, R. F. Zogbaum, Henry Sandham, Frank H. Taylor, Edward Knobel, and S. F. Denton. The work was particularly noted because it included the first two published prints in color by Remington and a rare image of deer-hunting by Frost. According to Gould’s preface, the plates are all from water-colours especially commissioned for the work which were subjected to the critical scrutiny of a group of anglers/sportsmen, who judged them for technical accuracy.

Frederick Sackrider Remington was a commanding artist of the American West. He gained firsthand knowledge as a ranger, military scout, hunter, and trapper. He was truly devoted to capturing the expansive and dangerous western frontier. In 1905, Remington wrote: “I knew the wild riders and the vacant land were about to vanish forever and the more I considered the subject, the bigger the forever loomed. Without knowing how to do it, I began to record some facts around me, and the more I looked the more the panorama unfolded.” In 1907 Theodore Roosevelt offered: “He [Remington] has portrayed a most characteristic and yet vanishing type of American life.” Remington was related by blood to the painter George Catlin and sculptor Earl W. Bascom.