The art museum that bears Sid Richardson's name is dedicated to displaying his collection of Western paintings. On display are paintings by two of the most celebrated artists of the American West: Frederic Remington (1861-1909) and Charles M. Russell (1864-1926). Works by these two artists form the core of the collection, which includes early paintings by each artist, as well as later paintings produced at the height of their careers.
The current exhibition of 27 artworks reunites popular paintings by Remington and Russell with two works that have not been displayed in the museum since prior to the museum's renovation in 2005 — Grubpile (The Evening Pipe) (1890) and A Sioux Chief (1901) — both of which are newly framed in period reproduction frames.
Russell was largely known as a painter of action, but in many paintings of Indigenous peoples, such as Grubpile (The Evening Pipe), an oil on canvas, he revealed a contemplative side. Remington's A Sioux Chief, a pencil and pastel on composition board, rather than being a portrait of a specific individual, is a tribute to the Sioux.
Also on display are three Russell bronzes on loan from a private collector. Depicting American Indian customs, The Scalp Dancer (cast #6, 1914), The Snake Priest (unknown cast #, 1914), and Smoking with the Spirit of the Buffalo (unknown cast #, 1915) are examples of smaller Russell bronzes created for a public eager for his decorative bronzes.
Nine Remington paintings from the Sid Richardson Museum's permanent collection have travelled to the Frederic Remington Art Museum in Ogdensburg, New York, as part of an unprecedented exchange of works between these two institutions.
