Friends or Foes? (The Scout), c.1902/05 Frederic Remington (1861-1909)

We create our paintings with museum quality and covering the highest academic standards. Once we get your order, it will be entirely hand-painted with oil on canvas. All the materials we use are the highest level, being totally artist graded painting materials and linen canvas.

We will add 1.6" (4 cm) additional blank canvas all over the painting for stretching.

High quality and detailing in every inch are time consuming. The reproduction of Frederic Remington also needs time to dry in order to be completely ready for shipping, as this is crucial to not be damaged during transportation.
Based on the size, level of detail and complexity we need 5-6 weeks to complete the process.

In case the delivery date needs to be extended in time, or we are overloaded with requests, there will be an email sent to you sharing the new timelines of production and delivery.

TOPofART wants to remind you to keep patient, in order to get you the highest quality, being our mission to fulfill your expectations.

We not stretch and frame our oil paintings due to several reasons:
Painting reproduction is a high quality expensive product, which we cannot risk to damage by sending it being stretched.
Also, there are postal restrictions, regarding the size of the shipment.
Additionally, due to the dimensions of the stretched canvas, the shipment price may exceed the price of the product itself.

You can stretch and frame your painting in your local frame-shop.

Once the painting Friends or Foes? (The Scout) is ready and dry, it will be shipped to your delivery address. The canvas will be rolled-up in a secure postal tube.

We offer free shipping as well as paid express transportation services.

After adding your artwork to the shopping cart, you will be able to check the delivery price using the Estimate Shipping and Tax tool.

The paintings we create are only of museum quality. Our academy graduated artists will never allow a compromise in the quality and detail of the ordered painting. TOPofART do not work, and will never allow ourselves to work with low quality studios from the Far East. We are based in Europe, and quality is our highest priority.

"Friends or Foes?" captures the quintessential loneliness and stark beauty of the American frontier. Frederic Remington presents us with a figure, possibly a scout, perched on his horse amidst an endless expanse of snow, as if swallowed by a boundless winter. There’s something undeniably haunting about the way the rider and horse stand motionless, framed by a sky that’s more shadow than color. Remington has crafted a moment suspended in time - a quiet tension that feels like it could break at any second.

Look at how that snow is painted: vast, cold, and alien. It's almost monochromatic in its endless whiteness, but Remington uses the faintest variations in blue and lavender to give it texture and depth. It's not just snow - it's a desert of ice. The rider, cloaked in brown, breaks the coldness with earthy tones. He’s a burst of warmth amidst a sea of frost. His face is obscured, lost in contemplation or vigilance, adding a sense of mystery. Is he waiting? Is he lost? The painting doesn't give us answers, just questions.

The horse, too, exudes a quiet exhaustion. You can almost hear the crunch of hooves in the snow, see the breath condensing in the frigid air. Both horse and rider seem to merge into the environment, emphasizing their isolation.

Compositionally, Remington places his subjects off-center, letting the vast emptiness dominate the frame. The stars above twinkle subtly, contrasting with the hard-edged coldness below. It's a painting about survival, about the stillness before something - maybe conflict, maybe discovery. Remington masterfully wields color, or the lack of it, to convey this eerie, vast stillness.