Selected paintings from the Sid Richardson Collection of Western Art, which consists of more than 100 works by premier Western artists Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell and other masters of the genre, are currently on temporary display at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth.
The Carter, at 3501 Camp Bowie Blvd. in the heart of the Fort Worth Cultural District, holds one of the nation’s finest collections of American art, with 19th- and 20th-century masterworks in painting, sculpture, and works on paper, as well as photographs that span the history of the medium from the earliest daguerreotypes up to present-day digital images.
The pieces from the Sid Richardson Collection, which was assembled by the late Fort Worth oilman and philanthropist Sid W. Richardson (1891-1959), are for a limited time being exhibited with the Carter’s own extensive Remington and Russell holdings. The museum’s namesake and founding benefactor, newspaper publisher Amon G. Carter Sr. (1879-1955), was a close friend and confidante of Richardson, and encouraged his interest in collecting the works of Remington and Russell. Together, Richardson and Carter did much to secure the rich cultural legacy that Fort Worth today enjoys.
“For a period of about ten years prior to the opening of our own museum in 1981, the Sid Richardson Collection was on view at the Amon Carter Museum,” said Jan Brenneman, director of the Sid Richardson Collection of Western Art. “To have some of our paintings reunited with those from Mr. Carter’s own collection will be a fitting memorial to the friendship between these two great men.”
The short-term relocation of the Sid Richardson Collection was made necessary by the renovation and expansion of its permanent home at 309 Main St. in downtown Fort Worth’s Sundance Square. The building is being redesigned by David M. Schwarz, the architect responsible for North Texas landmarks such as the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth; Ameriquest Field in Arlington (home of major league baseball’s Texas Rangers); and the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
The building’s exterior is receiving a complete facelift to make it more pedestrian-friendly, in keeping with the intimate scale of the Sundance Square streetscape. Inside, the gallery space is being updated and divided into two sections, to allow for rotating exhibits of works from the Collection and special exhibitions in the future.
In addition to the renovation and reconfiguration of the existing facilities, a southward expansion into more than 1,800 square feet of adjacent ground-floor space will accommodate the creation of a group entrance, and of improved education facilities and other visitor amenities. For the duration of the project, both the paintings in the Collection and the unique selection of merchandise associated with them will continue to be accessible online at Sid Richardson Museum.
“The aggregate holdings of Remington and Russell in Fort Worth venues have long made the city a destination for people who love Western art,” said Brenneman. “The renovation of our museum creates a rare opportunity for connoisseurs to see two great collections of Remington and Russell under one roof.”
About the Collection
Sid Richardson began purchasing the works of Frederic Remington and Charles Russell in the early 1940s with the help of New York art dealer Bert Newhouse and the encouragement of Fort Worth friend Amon Carter. Newhouse became Richardson’s principal dealer and helped him acquire the majority of his paintings between 1942 and 1950. Richardson and fellow oilmen Thomas Gilcrease of Tulsa, Okla., Frank Phillips of Bartlesville, Okla., and R.W. Norton of Shreveport, La. ?? themselves the stuff of Western legend ?? established through their collections a link to the romantic legends of the Old West.
Sid Richardson did not wholly limit his collection to Remington and Russell. With his preference for paintings with action or suspense, he also collected works by Charles Schreyvogel, Oscar E. Berninghaus, Frank Tenney Johnson, William R. Leigh, Edwin W. Deming, Gilbert Gaul, Peter Moran and Charles F. Browne. However, his primary interest was in Remington and Russell and he continued to add their works to his collection until a few years before his death on Sept. 30, 1959. Time has confirmed Richardson’s wisdom. Remington and Russell remain today what they were in their own day, the “titans of Western art.”
