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CHARLES M. RUSSELL (1864–1926) Hall, Harvey D. “Old Wagon,” 9/1898 watercolor, pen and ink on paper
7 1⁄4 x 9 3⁄8 inches
$50,000–70,000
Recorded in Charles M. Russell: A Catalog Raisonné: CR.ILU.212
Harvey D. Hall came to Cascade in 1882 and resided there for fifty years. He operated a livery stable and eventually became the city’s first mayor upon its incorporation in 1911.1 Charlie wrote this illustrated letter of thanks to Hall in September 1898, the year after the artist and his wife Nancy moved from Cascade to Great Falls. In Charles M. Russell, Word Painter,2 Brian Dippie describes the contents of the correspondence: “Hall gave the Russells a goose and [Russell] illustrates him shooting it, with his dog Prince looking on.”
Unlike most of the artist’s illustrated letters, Russell utilizes a playful format, replacing words with drawings to represent the recipient (Harvey D. “Old Wagon” Hall), the gift (the goose), and the signature (Charles and Nancy Russell). In describing a similar rebus-like letter thanking Robert Thoroughman for some chickens from November 1899, Dippie writes: “Charlie’s thank-you notes...date from his years as a respectable married man, when the chickens were gifts. In his bachelor days, however, while passing a hungry winter with other unemployed cowboys, Charlie was not above rustling a little poultry on the side.”3
PROVENANCE ILLUSTRATION
• • • •
1 2 3
Harvey D. Hall, Cascade, Montana
Winnifred Tisdale (Hall), Livingston, Montana by descent Fred Shellenberg, Livingston, Montana
Private collection, Montana by descent
Great Falls Tribune, May 3, 1932.
Charles M. Russell, Word Painter (Amon Carter Museum, 1993), 428. Ibid, 40.
• Russell, Charles M. Good Medicine: The Illustrated Letters of Charles M. Russell. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran, 1929, p. 51.