The Bronco Buster is a sculpture

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

 made of bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

 copyrighted in 1895 by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 artist Frederic Remington

Frederic Remington

Frederic Sackrider Remington was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in depictions of the Old American West, specifically concentrating on the last quarter of the 19th century American West and images of cowboys, American Indians, and the U. S...

. It portrays a rugged Western frontier cowboy

Cowboy

A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...

 character fighting to stay aboard a rearing, plunging bronco

Bronco

Bronco, or bronc is a term used in the United States, northern Mexico and Canada to refer to an untrained horse or one that habitually bucks. It may refer to a feral horse that has lived in the wild its entire life, but is also used to refer to domestic horses not yet fully trained to saddle, and...

, with a stirrup

Stirrup

A stirrup is a light frame or ring that holds the foot of a rider, attached to the saddle by a strap, often called a stirrup leather. Stirrups are usually paired and are used to aid in mounting and as a support while using a riding animal...

 swinging free, a quirt

Quirt

A quirt is a forked type of stock whip which usually has two falls at the end . Sometimes called a riding quirt, horse quirt, or a dog quirt.The falls on a quirt are made of leather, buffalo, or cow hide...

 in one hand and a fistful of mane

Mane

- Biology :* mane of a horse, the line of hair along the spine of the neck* mane of a lion, found around the male mammal's neck- Places :* Mane Department, a department in the Sanmatenga Province of Burkina Faso* French communes:...

 and reins in the other. It was the first and remains the most popular of all of Remington's sculptures.

The sculpture was executed in the summer of 1895, and later that fall it was copyright

Copyright

Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...

ed with the United States Copyright Office

United States Copyright Office

The United States Copyright Office, a part of the Library of Congress, is the official U.S. government body that maintains records of copyright registration in the United States. It is used by copyright title searchers who are attempting to clear a chain of title for copyrighted works.The head of...

. He took his subject from "A Pitching Bronco", an illustration of his that had been published in the April 30, 1892, issue of Harper's Weekly

Harper's Weekly

Harper's Weekly was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor...

. Sculpting was a new medium for Remington at this time, and this new method of portrayal was a total success in the eyes of his collectors and art historians. Breaking away from the restricted limits of flat paper, pen and ink and watercolor; Remington moved to the next level of his artistic potential, through the more effective medium of three dimensional expressions. Remington, who always strove to capture the essence of the moment in his work, now found he was more able to effectively express that which he had observed first hand:
With this in mind, he decided to sculpt a bucking bronco for his first piece. Using techniques from his previous works to help focus the subject's figure, Remington removed the figure from its context and isolated it into a grounded free-floating form, thus achieving a lifelike quality and vigorous movement. The artist's reference file for the sculpture included a photograph of a cowboy

Cowboy

A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...

 that very closely resembled his 1892 illustration of A Bucking Bronco. The Bronco Buster followed the same kind of process liberating horse and man from two-dimensionality as before.

An original cast resides in the Oval Office

Oval Office

The Oval Office, located in the West Wing of the White House, is the official office of the President of the United States.The room features three large south-facing windows behind the president's desk, and a fireplace at the north end...

, a gift of Miss Virginia Hatfield and Mrs. Louis Hatfield Stickney during the Carter Administration

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

. Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

's Rough Riders

Rough Riders

The Rough Riders is the name bestowed on the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish-American War and the only one of the three to see action. The United States Army was weakened and left with little manpower after the American Civil War...

 gave him a cast of The Bronco Buster, which is now at the Sagamore National Historic Site, Oyster Bay, New York.

Another original Remington sculpture, The Cowboy, 1907, is located along Kelly Drive

Kelly Drive

Kelly Drive, or more formally, John B. Kelly Drive, is a winding four-mile road along the Schuylkill River from Eakins Oval before the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the neighborhood of East Falls, Philadelphia, just south of Wissahickon Creek, where it connects with Lincoln Drive.-East River...

 (formerly known as "East River Drive") in Fairmount Park

Fairmount Park

Fairmount Park is the municipal park system of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It consists of 63 parks, with , all overseen by the Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation, successor to the Fairmount Park Commission in 2010.-Fairmount Park proper:...

, Philadelphia. It is Remington's only commissioned sculpture and only monument, and a different sculpture from The Bronco Buster.