The Melee (Saber Practice at Dickels)

The Melee was published in Harper’s Weekly on January 2, 1892. It illustrated the editor Arthur Brisbane’s profile of a New York State militia training regiment. Frederic Remington’s painting of the scene was executed entirely in shades of black, gray and white using ink and opaque watercolor. The limited palette aided in translating the painting into an engraving for publication.

Remington was well known by the late 1880s for his magazine illustrations of Western scenes. He traveled west at least once a year to study his subject matter, and magazine readers eagerly awaited publication of the next Remington illustration.