Across an arid plain, eight men ride for cover. Just before reaching the trees, one keels over, having been struck by a bullet. Close behind, a group of Native Americans follows in hot pursuit, and it is not clear who will emerge victorious.

   Remington executed this climatic scene after Harper’s Weekly sent him west from his home in New York to document army efforts to capture the Apache leader Geronimo. Following the trip, Remington devised this fictional scene to convey the bravery and comradery of western cowboys. The picture was a critical sensation, and it would shape future popular imaginings of western life. Despite its remarkable drama, A Dash for the Timber simplifies a more complex reality. Remington presents settlers and Indigenous peoples as incompatible, linked only through acts of violence. This visual rhetoric denies Native Americans their humanity, portraying them as the primary aggressors, and it obscures accounts of diplomacy and cross-cultural exchange that did not culminate in open conflict..

百度翻译：http://fanyi.baidu.com

   Between 1885 and 1888, Remington made a number of trips to the Southwest, often to cover the activities of the U.S. Cavalry and its pursuit of renegade Apaches. He was deeply influenced by the stark landscape of the region and filled his sketchbooks with color notes and observations about the special quality of the light. In 1889, he wrote to a friend that he was working on “a big cowboy picture,” and he needed two or three pairs of chaps sent to him as soon as possible. He was referring to this painting, which launched his career when it received favorable critical attention at the National Academy of Design in New York the following year. The overall effect of the composition is riveting, as the fleeing riders gallop forward directly toward the viewer. Interestingly, this cinematic quality anticipates the many western films that were to follow a generation later.

百度翻译：http://fanyi.baidu.com