Since he was always more concerned with factual realism than academic art, it was natural for Frederic Remington to undertake sculpture. He had worked with equal success in practically every other art medium and had always had a feeling for form. All it took to begin this new challenge was some encouragement by a fellow artist. He began working on a hunk of clay, and in less than four months a finished model of “The Bronco Buster” was delivered to the foundry for casting.The first castings of the sculpture were made by the sand-cast process. There were considerably fewer of these original castings than of later castings made through the more delicate lost-wax process. The subject was a difficult one, in form and balance, for even a sculptor of long experience. However, the sculpture’s artistic merits were immediately praised by the critics.
The sculpture’s popular appeal is shown by the fact that about three hundred castings were made and sold before the original mold was destroyed. Since then, perhaps three times as many recasts and spurious copies have been on the market. The early illegitimate castings were crudely done. More recent ones are difficult to distinguish from the originals.