Page 36 - 2021 March Sealed Bid Catalogue

Lot 14—CHARLES M. RUSSELL—The Run (cont.)
Charles Russell’s personal friend, James Willard Schultz was just such a white man as Colonel Dodge describes. He married a Blackfoot Indian, was adopted by the tribe, and attended a number of buffalo hunts. In a series of articles published in Eastern magazines, he described his adventures including buffalo hunting pursuits. After reading Schultz’s accounts of these activities one cannot ever view Russell’s buffalo hunt pictures quite the same way. Shultz’s artist friend, Charlie Russell, makes these adventure stories told truly come alive.
In his 1906 rendition of The Run, Russell has used the dust storm raised by the stampeding and encircled buffalo to convey the clamor and chaos that is challenging the pursuing hunters. While this somewhat obscures the definition of the landscape, the upper left structure still suggests that the scene is taking place against a Judith Basin butte background in the heart of Russell country. Russell’s detailed depiction demonstrates an impressive accumulated knowledge of Indian buffalo hunting techniques. For example, with an arrow pulled tight, aimed and about to be delivered on target, you can see two more arrows are also gripped unsheathed. Alongside the bow itself, they are ready for rapid delivery. The trailing rope attached to the horse provides the rider’s only chance for recovery if he becomes dismounted. The elegant trailing bead work cleverly draws the viewer’s eye to these details.
James Willard Schultz
Russell’s success in capturing the allure, romance, as well as the real daunting prospect of danger in this painting undoubtedly incentivized him to persevere again and again in subsequent years on this same demanding and deeply informative subject matter. Frederic Renner ultimately counted a total of seventy-five Russell depictions of buffalo hunting and he may even have missed a few. When one considers that many of these qualify as masterworks, it seems fair to view Native American buffalo hunting as a leading candidate to be the artist’s signature composition. This is somewhat ironic given that it involves the person who became most widely known as Montana’s (and ultimately America’s) most famous “cowboy artist.”
Finally, a word about this painting’s provenance. The history of prior ownership of a painting can be both interesting and even revealing. This painting has one of the shortest listings of provenance of Russell works. Russell sold it to Roe Emery, a good friend from Denver who often summered with his family in Whitefish, Montana. For over a century it passed by descent through the Emery family and then to only one additional collector. Interestingly, in November/December 1921, Nancy and Charlie had an exhibition at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. One has to wonder if (or least suspect) at that time there may have been a reacquaintance of the Emery family with this piece and several others by the artist.