Artwork Details
- Title
- The Broncho Buster (cast #86)
- Artist
- Founder
- Roman Bronze Works
- Date
- modeled 1895, cast 1909
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 23 1⁄4 x 20 1⁄4 x 11 1⁄2 in. (59.1 x 51.4 x 29.2 cm)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Jean and William M. (Oz) Osborne in memory of Donald S. Vogel and in honor of Cheryl and Kevin Vogel
- Mediums Description
- bronze
- Classifications
- Subjects
- Animal — horse
- Figure male — full length
- Occupation — sport — equestrian
- Object Number
- 2005.23.2
Artwork Description
A version of this sculpture has appeared in the White House Oval Office throughout numerous presidential terms.
From Hollywood movies to cigarette advertisements, the American cowboy is a legendary figure and, almost always, a White man. Yet the original bronco busters were Mexican vaqueros of mixed European, Indigenous, and African descent, expert horsemen and cow wranglers like those Remington studied to compose this sculpture.
As Luis Jiménez, artist of SAAM’s outdoor sculpture Vaquero, reflects, “I was struck with the irony that our concept of the American cowboy was this John Wayne type image, this blond cowboy coming out of Hollywood, where in fact the original cowboy was Mexican.”
Label text from The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture November 8, 2024 -- September 14, 2025