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The Scalp / Frederic Remington

Essay/Description

The model for The Scalp was created in 1898. This specific sculpture was created using an original bronze cast, not the artist's model, making it a fake.

Gallery Label

This bronze was made from another bronze cast (rather than a plaster) with the intent to deceive. It is a fake. It was probably made long after Remington’s death from a mold taken from another bronze originally sand cast by the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company, Remington’s first foundry. Their degraded foundry mark, partly visible on the top rear of the base, is cast through from the bronze model, and is not crisp like the first generation foundry marks (see Henry-Bonnard first generation marks on The Wicked Pony, 0827.36, and The Wounded Bunkie, 0826.35, by Remington). A number 7 is engraved under the base in an attempt to place it among Remington’s first casts. When compared to casts of The Scalp actually made in 1898 at Henry-Bonnard, this work is nearly an inch shorter. Bronze shrinks as it cools; therefore, a bronze made from a bronze will be smaller than its model. In addition, the joins attaching the horse to the base are not like those used by Henry-Bonnard, and the color of the patina is wrong. Further, Henry-Bonnard made only sand casts of Remington’s work, and this is a lost-wax cast. Much detail has been lost.

From the exhibition:Frontier to Foundry: the Making of Small Bronze Sculpture in the Gilcrease Collection, December 2014 - March 2015.
Ann Boulton Young, Associate Conservator for the Gilcrease Museum, 2014.

Curatorial Remarks

This bronze is marked as cast number 7. It is a surmoulage. Greenbaum incorrectly calls this a lifetime sand cast. This is a lost-wax cast trying to look like a sand cast. The foundry mark has been degraded, having been cast through from a bronze sand cast. This was purchased from the Douthitt Gallery in 1942.

Ann Boulton Young, Associate Conservator for the Gilcrease Museum, 2018

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Title(s): 
The Scalp; The Triumph; The Scalp Lock
Creator(s): 
Frederic Remington (Artist)
Culture: 
American
Date: 
lost-wax cast possibly between 1940 and 1942
Materials/Techniques: 
lost-wax cast in bronze
Classification: 
Object Type: 
Credit Line: 
Gift of the Thomas Gilcrease Foundation, 1955
Accession No: 
08.38
Previous Number(s): 
0826.38; 24336
Department: 
Not On View

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