The title refers to the untamable horse. With its two forefeet descending onto a clump of sagebrush, this horse with rider has the least connection with the base of any of Remington’s sculptures and is seemingly caught in midair. The work may have been the greatest challenge ever presented by Remington to his founder, Riccardo Bertelli (1870-1955) of Roman Bronze Works, who worked with Remington to exploit the tensile strength of bronze and the advantages of the lost-wax process. Like most of Remington’s sculptures, its conception is basically two-dimensional with a strong silhouette.
Remington modeled The Outlaw in 1906. The museum’s cast is number twelve of the total edition of approximately fifty and was cast in 1913 after the sculptor’s death, when Roman Bronze Works continued to cast models under authority of Remington’s widow (see National Museum of American Art, Cast and Recast, pp. 107-8, for casting history).
