Fight For The Water Hole

Name: Fight For The Water Hole
Brand: Frederic Remington
SKU: fight-for-the-water-hole
Price: 222 USD
Availability: InStock

Frederic Remington

Item Number: 29710

$

Frederic Remington paints five cowboys defending a small water hole in an arid Western plain, the men lying low among the rocks with rifles ready, two horses crouched behind. The composition is built ...

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Features “Fight For The Water Hole” by Frederic Remington

Overview
Author	Frederic Remington
Color	Brown, Beige, Blue, White, Black, Green
Tags	wild west, action, desert, group, historical, riding, speed

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Description “Fight For The Water Hole” by Frederic Remington

Frederic Remington paints five cowboys defending a small water hole in an arid Western plain, the men lying low among the rocks with rifles ready, two horses crouched behind. The composition is built on the central group of figures with the dry land stretching out to a low horizon. The colour is held to dusty ochre of the plain, warm browns of the men's clothes and a thin pale band of sky.

The painting belongs to Remington's mature Western practice of the early 1900s and is one of his most reproduced single-image canvases. The treatment is alert rather than dramatic.

As a hand-painted canvas reproduction, the dust of the plain and the warm browns of the figures depend on real paint to keep their dryness — print tends to flatten the picture into a single mid-tone. The picture suits a den, a study with strong dark wood furniture, a long horizontal hallway, or a wall in a country house. A simple plain-wood or dark frame is the most coherent pairing. Final approval is sent by the buyer before the canvas is despatched.

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What does Frederic Remington depict in Fight For The Water Hole?

Remington depicts a small group of cowboys pinned down at the edge of a desert water hole, defending it against attack from unseen assailants — the composition reducing the drama of the frontier to its most elemental terms: the desperate defense of water in a pitiless landscape where water means survival. The cowboys are spread in a defensive line, their rifles raised, their horses gathered behind them, the surrounding desert stretching to a distant horizon under a blazing sky.
What visual and compositional qualities define this painting?

Remington constructs the scene with the clarity of a military diagram — each defender clearly positioned, the sight lines of their rifles converging toward an implied threat beyond the picture's edge — while simultaneously capturing the shimmering heat of the Texas or Arizona desert with atmospheric precision. The horizontal composition, with the defenders arrayed across the lower foreground against the vast expanse of desert and sky behind them, creates a sense of both isolation and impending doom. The light is harsh, bright, and unforgiving, casting hard shadows that increase the tension of the scene.
What is the historical context of this subject in Remington's work?

Remington painted this scene in 1903, when the Indian Wars of the southwestern frontier were a recent memory and the mythology of the cowboy and cavalry was being actively constructed by artists, writers, and filmmakers. The water hole as a site of conflict was a specifically southwestern motif — in the arid lands of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, control of water sources was literally a matter of life and death — and Remington's treatment of it has a documentary accuracy rooted in his direct experience of the region.
What atmosphere does a print of Fight For The Water Hole create in a home?

The painting's tense, dramatic composition, its evocation of the harsh southwestern landscape, and its narrative clarity create a gripping and characteristically American presence in any interior. It suits a study, living room, or western-themed space where its sense of frontier drama and historical authenticity can be appreciated. For admirers of Remington's narrative paintings, American western history, or simply powerful figurative art, it is a compelling and memorable choice.

Additional Information “Fight For The Water Hole” by Frederic Remington

“Remington didn’t romanticize the West — he painted its dust, its heat, its violence, and its desperate beauty with the eye of a man who had actually been there.” — Frederic Remington Art Museum

“His cowboys and cavalrymen are not heroes in the storybook sense — they are men in serious trouble, doing their best to survive.” — Western American Art, 1990

#1. The Definitive Western Artist. Frederic Remington (1861–1909) traveled extensively through the American West in the 1880s, producing thousands of illustrations, paintings, and sculptures that defined the visual vocabulary of the cowboy era for generations.

#2. A Story of Survival. Fight for the Water Hole (1903) shows five cowboys pinned down around a desert waterhole, defending it against attackers. In the arid Southwest, water could mean life or death — the drama is primal and utterly believable.

#3. Sculptor as Well as Painter. Remington is equally celebrated for his bronze sculptures — works like The Bronco Buster (1895) became iconic. President Theodore Roosevelt, a close friend, kept a cast on his desk in the Oval Office.

The brown, beige, and blue palette reads naturally in a office or living room, or a study. Allow generous wall space on either side; the composition needs room to breathe. The work pairs well with simple linen sofas, low-pile carpets, and a warm-modern feel. Its cool tones cool the room visually — useful in warm-painted interiors, less so beside blue walls. Let it breathe on a wide unbroken wall.

Hand-painting it well means committing to the rhythm of water and reflection and then refining the long horizontal strokes of the sea. Underpainting carries the structure; the visible layers above it carry the color and life. Water and reflection ask for restraint — too much detail flattens the surface. Oil on canvas, painted in the studio by a single hand for each piece.

The arrangement is contained and direct. A palette of brown, beige, blue, and white carries the painting, with subtle shifts holding the surface alive. The painter leans on tonal value, with light treated as a quiet structural element. The brushwork is handled to support the composition rather than to call attention to itself. The composition is built to carry both at scale and in detail, useful in a setting where the work is approached more than once.