Page 32 - 2021 March Sealed Bid Catalogue

Lot 14—CHARLES M. RUSSELL—The Run (1906)
The Run is a work in oil painstakingly executed by C.M. Russell in 1906. That year was important because there were significant advancements by the artist in the overall caliber of his artistic output. The subject matter involves a buffalo hunting technique called a “surround.” This was a core survival activity for members of Plains Indian culture. In this work, the artist builds effectively on his decade earlier accomplishment (1895) in painting Buffalo Hunt #7 (see Appendix). Russell clearly demonstrates how he has used those intervening eleven years of practice and experimentation with brush in hand. Thus, he achieves an even more elevated depiction of the action and danger involved with harvesting wild animals that can approach, and even sometimes easily exceed, a ton in weight. The risks of miscalculating the momentum involved in pursuing them are clear cut.
The following two paragraphs about the critical role of the buffalo hunt in the Plains Indian culture are excerpted from: Our Wild Indians: Thirty-threeYears’ Personal Experience Among the Red Men of the Great West by Richard Erving Dodge; Page 282 Chapter XXII: The Buffalo and Its Description—The Indians of the Great Fall Hunt— Exciting Adventures.
Colonel Dodge graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1848. Following three decades of service primarily on the western plains other than during the Civil War, he published this noteworthy memoir in 1883.
“It is almost impossible for a civilized being to realize the value to the Plains Indian of the buffalo. It furnished him with home, food, clothing, bedding, horse equipment, almost everything. With it, he was rich and happy, without it he is poor as poverty itself, and constantly on the verge of starvation.
Fifty years ago [from 1883] the buffalo ranged from the Plains of Texas to far north beyond the British line; from the Missouri and Upper Mississippi to the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains Every portion of this immense area, called the Plains, was either the permanent home of this animal, or might be expected to have each year one or more visits from migratory thousands.”
In 1904 Russell spent six weeks in New York City. His numerous encounters and interactions with a dozen or
so other well accomplished illustrators amounted to an advanced course in refining and further perfecting his artistic technique. Returning to Great Falls, over the next several years Russell experienced a noteworthy burst of creative output that includes this artistic gem. In the appendix there are other fine examples of similarly smaller but extraordinarily well
formulated works. They are also representative of some of his most valuable works of the year 1906.
(Essay continues on following pages)