Artwork retains its pride of place

OGDENSBURG — President Barack Obama's recent redecoration had critics up in arms, with one Washington Times columnist calling the new Oval Office the "Boring Beige Box," but the president's choices have at least one supporter here.

"I was greatly relieved," said Laura A. Foster, curator of the Frederic Remington Art Museum, when she found out that Remington's "Broncho Buster" sculpture had survived the redecoration and still had a prominent place in the office of the world's most powerful man.

Each president brings his own decoration choices to the Oval Office. Many have turned to Remington, iconic painter of the Wild West, associate of Theodore Roosevelt and north country legend who is buried in Canton.

"I think his work embodies the great big American ideal of the Wild West," Ms. Foster said. "These people with these wild horses being broken, people charging across the plains — it's very American."

Remington's works have for decades flowed between the walls and tabletops of the most powerful and the 303 Washington St. museum.

The connection between Theodore Roosevelt and Frederic Remington was strong, but, contrary to popular belief, Roosevelt did not put the "Broncho Buster" in the Oval Office. After Remington illustrated a book Roosevelt wrote, and illustrated the Rough Riders' exploits in Cuba that helped make both men famous, Remington gave Roosevelt his sculpture "Paleolithic Man." The Rough Riders also gave Roosevelt a cast of "Broncho Buster," but not the same one now just over President Obama's right shoulder.

Remington's work first found its way into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. during the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations, when "The Charge of the Rough Riders," perhaps Remington's most iconic painting, was on loan to the White House. The Remington museum has a picture of Henry Kissinger, former secretary of state, sitting under the painting.

The "Broncho Buster" that is now in the Oval Office first arrived during the Jimmy Carter administration. North country ears perked up when President Bill Clinton mentioned "there is a Remington" during a walk-through interview of the Oval Office with CBS's Dan Rather early in his presidency. President Clinton also may have been referring to "Coming Through the Rye," a sculpture depicting four whooping cowboys, guns blazing, that is still at the White House.

The affection of America's commanders in chief for Remington is somewhat of a Washington rarity: It crosses partisan boundaries.

During the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, "The Rattlesnake," a Remington bronze, was featured in the White House.

After the first Bush administration, the same cast traveled about 500 miles to the Remington Museum's Albert Priest Newell Gallery, where it still is today.

"From one important room to another," Ms. Foster joked. "Just a different shape."