Cowpuncher's Lullaby

Remington completed more than 70 night scenes in the last decade of his life. Already established as the premier illustrator of the “Old West,” Remington sought recognition as a fine artist. His choice of the nocturne, a genre that had been growing in popularity since the eighteenth century, was key to his success in this endeavor.
The rich range of earth tones in the lower half of Cowpuncher’s Lullaby is a mixture of opaque and transparent pigments. The horse, grass, and cows coalesce into a field of brown out of which the cowboy emerges, his black jacket barely distinguishable from the dark trees behind him. Remington’s nocturne might be viewed as depicting the twilight of the American frontier, the cowboy’s lonely song a lament for a passing way of life.