Page 102 - 2015 Russell Catalogue

123147CHARLES M. RUSSELL (1864–1926)The Camping Trip (set of three original drawings), 1899 pencil on paper1) 5 1⁄2 x 8 1⁄2 inches, 2) 5 1⁄2 x 8 1⁄2, and 3) 7 1⁄2 x 6 inchesDuring the 1890s, Charlie Russell produced many drawings for books, including Emerson Hough’s The Story ofa Cowboy (1897), and magazines like Recreation, Western Field and Stream, and Sports Afield. Russell made these drawings, titled The Camping Trip, in 1899, as souvenirs for his lifelong friend, the renowned Montana physician Dr. John Louis Weitman. The scenes illustrate Charlie’s fine sense of humor, showing Weitman learning to handle a bucking bronc, enjoying chow around a cook fire, and struggling with a stubborn pack horse. Russell met the good doctor in 1894, when Weitman moved to Great Falls to take a position with the Great Northern Railroad. Their friendship drew close during the 1890s, as is evidenced by the many paintings and sculptures the artist gave to the doctor. With the exception of The Camping Trip, the Weitman family generously gifted these associated materials to the C.M. Russell Museum during the 1980s. A two page memoir by Maralee Hinman, grandaughter to Dr.J.L. Weitman, will accompany this lot. In it, Hinman describes the three drawings and further recounts the family relationship with C.M. Russell.$45,000–60,000PROVENANCE• Charles M. Russell• Weitman family, 1899‒2015EXHIBITION• C.M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, MT, 1957, 1985‒1987