Fight for the Waterhole

Fight for the Waterhole at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is among Remington's most celebrated Western action paintings, depicting a desperate defensive engagement where a small group of men shelters behind a rocky waterhole against attacking enemies. The waterhole as a strategic objective in arid terrain gave the subject both tactical specificity and symbolic resonance: in the desert Southwest, water was life itself, and fights over it were fights for survival. This 1903 canvas is often reproduced as a quintessential Remington composition, and the MFA Houston's holding makes it one of the most visited of his major works.

The waterhole's depression provided Remington with a natural compositional container, drawing the eye inward to the defenders while allowing the attacking threat to be suggested beyond the rocky rim. He uses strong horizontal ground lines and a wide, sun-bleached sky to establish the harsh environmental conditions.