Apache Fire Signal

Apache Fire Signal at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid depicts the communication technology of the Apache — controlled smoke signals used to transmit information across the vast distances of the American Southwest — with the dramatic visual vocabulary Remington brought to all his Western subjects. By 1904 Remington was increasingly drawn to nocturnal and atmospheric scenes, and the fire signal offered both: a point of bright light in a dark landscape, with smoke rising against sky. The Thyssen-Bornemisza's holding of this work places American Western art within a European institution with one of the world's greatest collections of Old Masters and modern art.

The fire signal's light source within the composition gave Remington an opportunity to work with dramatic chiaroscuro: bright fire illuminating nearby figures while surrounding darkness swallows the landscape. He uses warm central light against cool peripheral darkness to maximise the signal's visual impact.