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CHARLES M. RUSSELL (1864–1926)
Where the Best of Riders Quit
bronze
14 1⁄2 x 10 x 9 inches
Signed and dated on base, CM Russell (skull), also inscribed, Calif. Art Bronze Fnry, L.A.
$275,000–375,000
Charles Marion Russell’s commitment to portraying the nitty gritty of the real American cowboy and the relationship between that character and the landscape, native peoples, ora, and fauna of the western United States has resulted in his acceptance into the canon of global art history.
Russell rst conceived Where the Best of Riders Quit in May 1889, when he sent a drawing portraying the same composition to Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. Titled e Mankiller, it became one of Charlie’s most celebrated compositions. Russell rst exhibited the model at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver in 1921. Production of Where the Best of Riders Quit in bronze was undertaken by Roman Bronze Works in 1923 and later transferred to California Art Bronze Foundry following the artist’s death in 1926. Rick Stewart estimates there are fteen examples of this bronze cast, eight of which are con rmed to be executed by Roman Bronze Works and ve completed by the California Art Bronze Foundry, including the one in the collection of the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.1 Its production record is noteworthy because the artist’s wife, Nancy, was the integral liaison between the foundries and the artist. Hence, works cast in her lifetime are also considered “lifetime.” In this case, while Roman Bronze Works produced the piece up until the artist’s death, when orders began to come thereafter, Nancy Russell moved the model out west for review by Joe DeYong and casting by Guido Nelli’s California Art Bronze Foundry. e bronze took on a subtly more accomplished quality following Joe DeYong’s review.
In addition to its obvious relevance to the working cowboy and his knowledge of how to outsmart his rebelling horse, the piece is tantamount to the suggestion of the real West. Russell had known of this horse and rider interaction long ago, and rendering it in three dimension was a coup for him, so much so that stellar examples of this bronze are some of the most coveted works at market.
Uniquely, Where the Best of Riders Quit remains as relevant and poignant as it was almost 100 years ago. While the work doubtlessly documents the complexities of life in the early West, it continues to o er important commentary on the continuing saga between horse and rider.
A copy of a letter by Rick Stewart discussing this bronze will accompany this lot.
Other Examples
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
Bu alo Bill CenteroftheWest, Cody, Wyoming
National Cowboy Hall of Fame, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma e Rockwell Museum, Corning, New York
ILLUSTRATION
• Rick Stewart, Charles M. Russell: Sculptor (Fort Worth, TX: Amon Carter Museum), 234–238, images of another casting(s)
PROVENANCE
• Parke-Bernet, New York, 1969
• By descent in the family to the present owner.
1Rick Stewart, Charles M. Russell; Sculptor (Fort Worth, TX: Amon Carter Museum, 1994), 235.