Page 139 - 2019 Russell Catalogue

174
CHARLES M. RUSSELL (1864–1926) Disappointment of a Lifetime, c. 1903–1904 watercolor
11 x 14 inches
Inscription: Ll: CMR/(skull)
PROVENANCE
• Private collection, Montana
$95,000–130,000
Recorded in Charles M. Russell: A Catalog Raisonné: CR.UNL.172
Charles J. Steedman wrote of his early cowboy memories for a Puttman & Sons publication in 1904, Bucking the Sagebrush. The author wanted his old cowboy friend Charles Russell to do the illustrations. Russell created ten watercolors and numerous pen and ink drawings for this, the largest book illustration contract the artist had received by the time of publication. The project was large enough that it likely played a role in his postponing a trip to exhibit in the Montana Pavilion at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World’s Fair.
Bucking the Sagebrush’s recount of the initially puzzling scene depicted in Disappointment of a Lifetime reads:
A few days’ journey brought us to what is known as Shirley Basin, named after an old-time stockman called John
Quincy Adams Shirley. It was then, and remained for several years afterwards, a great feeding ground for elk and black-tail deer.
It hardly seems possible, but while we were coming along, not a day passed that we did not see bands of them, numbering from ten to two or three hundred, and not at all shy. The boys killed several while on herd as the elk came right up to the grazing cattle. One morning I had started ahead at daybreak and was riding back to camp about sun-up when I came to a steep bluff. I dismounted, led my horse, and on reaching the level of the top, I almost had an attack of buck fever. Within twenty feet of me stood a big buck and just beyond him a bunch of elk, which must have contained a hundred or more.
There was quite a thick frost fog, and I was to leeward, so the conditions were A 1 for a slaughter. I counted thirteen big bulls and not one of them was more than a hundred and fifty yards away.
I made a jump for a .45-calibre Smith & Wesson revolver that I carried in a holster on my saddle and then lay down, so that my head was just showing, and I had a fine rest for my elbow. I just saw that big fellow dead at my feet, so certain was I of hitting him, but, alas! the chamber opposite the trigger was empty and the cylinder would not revolve, owing to the rust I had allowed to get into the mechanism. I did everything to move it
and even jumped up and down in my rage. Finally, in desperation, I hurled the pistol at the elk and
I believe I hit him. Even that did not seem to scare the bunch; I suppose the fog made me indistinct.
At all events, I had to shout and wave my hat before I could get them running. I swore then that
never again would I own a Smith & Wesson revolver, or any other that was not of the simplest kind,
such as a Colt. My disappointment over losing that fine beast is acute even to this day.
Lot 174 includes a first edition copy of Bucking the Sagebrush complete with slip case in very good plus condition. Considered very rare, Steedman’s book featuring the illustrations of Charles Russell is considered among the one of the top range cowboy books ever written.