Page 148 - TheRussellCatalogue2016

186CHARLES M. RUSSELL (1864–1926) Curley the Crow, c. 1888oil29 1⁄2 x 22 1⁄4 inchesSigned Ll: CMR (painted skull)Curley the Crow is a full-length portrait of Ashishishe (c. 1856–1923), a Crow Indian who served as a scout for the United States Army during the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. Curley is best known for having been one of the few survivors on the United States side at the battle. He did not ght, but watched from a distance and was the rst to report the defeat of the Seventh Cavalry Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.Charles Russell’s portrayal of Curley bears some resemblance to a studio portrait taken by the photographer John Hale Fouch in 1877 or 1878, and a series of studio portraits of the same subject photographed by D. F. (David Frances) Barry in the 1880s.1 Russell’s portrait of Curley shows him standing in a mountainous, timbered country, with his right foot across a log and a Winchester Model 1866 “Yellow Boy” ri e cradled in his left arm. He wears a gray and black patterned blanket coat, blue wool trousers, and beaded moccasins. His hair is worn in braids adorned with brass shell casings and a single eagle feather. He wears shell earnings, a shell and horn necklace, and gold rings. ere is a red and blue striped blanket tied around his waist, along with a leather knife scabbard decorated with brass rivets, and a beaded and fringed tobacco pouch.While Barry’s portraits reveal a younger man who was extremely good looking, Russell’s portrait discloses an angry, scowling man who gazes sideways into an unseen distance, perhaps remembering the unpleasantness of some disagreeable past. It may be that the artist’s view of Curley was tainted by stories he heard from the old warriors of the Blackfoot Confederacy in 1888. Russell spent hours listening to old warriors from the three Blackfoot tribes recount their youthful exploits. Many of those exploits involved battles against the Crow, the mortal enemies of the Blackfeet, Piegan, and Bloods. Moreover, the Blackfoot and the Crow had recently concluded a minor con ict in 1887 wherein both sides raided each other’s horses. Curley is known to have been living on the Crow Reservation at this time. He had recently divorced and remarried and may have taken part in the raids.Similarly, this painting has an interesting history. It bears a strong resemblance to two other paintings created about the same time, Indian Scout [No. 1] (CR.PC.508) and Portrait of an Indian (CR.MHS.115), which is part of the McKay Collection at the Montana Historical Society in Helena. A third portrait titled Chief Joseph [No. 1] suggests Russell’s preoccupation with Native American portraiture and more than a passing interest in the dramatic wars that were part of Montana’s recent past in 1888. e early history of this painting is unknown, although Russell may have given or sold the work to eodore Gibson, son of Paris Gibson, a United States Senator from Montana and the founder of Great Falls. Charlie and eo were close friends. eir wives socialized together into the 1920s. ey also traveled together from Great Falls to the Little Bighorn Battle eld for a commemoration ceremony in 1921.2 On October 22, 1922, the Great Falls Tribune ran a story illustrated by Charles M. Russell about how news of the Indian victory was brought by Curley to the steamer Far West at the mouth of the Little Bighorn River.Speculation that eodore Gibson may have been the rst owner of the painting is substantiated by documentation from the Ursuline Academy Collection, dated January 1, 1934. Receipts from the archives show that Donald Gibson, son of eodore, sold the painting to the Ursulines for $50 as partial payment for tuition and books for his daughter Marjorie, who graduated from the academy in 1933. A letter from James B. Rankin to Reverend Sister Clotilde, dated February 15, 1937, validates the sale and ownership by the Ursulines. e Sisters owned the painting from 1934 to 1999, when they sold it to the present owner, who consigned it to e Russell Exhibition and Sale.$150,000–350,0001 See CurleybyFouch.jpg attached. See also, Denver Public Library Digital Collections, digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/ id/45852/rec/37).2 Great Falls Tribune, June 24, 1921, 8; and June 28, 1921, 11.