2024 Coeur d’Alene Art Auction / Lot 287286 / 404 • View Catalog •
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Crow Scout on Pinto Pony is recorded in the C. M. Russell Catalogue Raisonné as reference number CR.NE.71.
According to Russell authority Dr. Larry Len Peterson, “Crow Scout on Pinto Pony is one of the finest oil paintings Russell completed in the 1890s. By 1890 the ‘cowboy artist’ was known as much for his work on paintings of Indians as on cowboys. ‘In depicting American Indian life Mr. Russell excels,’ the Fort Benton Weekly River Press opined on March 5 of that year. ‘He has a powerful grasp of nature. His Indians are Indians every inch…’ This beautiful setting – daybreak on the Missouri River Breaks a few miles downstream from Fort Benton in north central Montana – is similar to a number of his masterpieces such as When the Land Belonged to God, Piegans, and Salute to the Robe Trade. The strong pyramidal composition features the Crow (Absaroka) scout on horseback in the foreground with the Missouri River meandering in front of the majestic Highwood Mountains and buttes south of the river. The Crow were a Plains bison hunting tribe who split from the Hidasta tribe during the second half of the eighteenth century.
“A lone Crow scout in Blackfeet (Piegan) country faced imminent danger because the Crow competed with them for bison and also stole their horses. The robe trade with Whites was lucrative for the tribes. Since the Blackfeet tended to kill any Crow who entered their territory, they were greatly feared. The Blackfeet lived in tipis and also hunted bison. Russell portrayed the tribe’s disdain for each other in his famous Blackfeet Burning Crow Buffalo Range. Before contact with the Whites, the Crow were corn planters, and the women practiced pottery. But afterwards they became nomadic hunters, much like the Blackfeet. The Crow were quite successful and became the largest of all tribes on the northern plains. They were one of the most adaptive cultures and became scouts for the U.S. military. Most notable were the Crow scouts in Custer’s command. They were perhaps the only Indian tribe who lamented Custer’s demise.
“The trans-Mississippi fur trade embraced a span of years from 1807 to 1843. Furs from bison and beavers were obtained from: Indians; hunters and trappers employed by fur companies; and free trappers and hunters who worked on their own. In exchange for furs, Indians received tobacco, whiskey, clothing, iron utensils, and guns. In 1808 John Jacob Astor (1763-1848) founded the American Fur Company, and by 1830 it dominated the fur trade in the United States. The American Fur Company hired mountain men to improve Native American and animal trails and to develop trading posts like Fort Benton in Montana. Scotsman Kenneth McKenzie (1797-1861), nicknamed the ‘King of the Missouri,’ in 1831 ran the operation on the Upper Missouri and expanded it into Blackfeet country. Trading posts were constructed between Fort Union (1828), at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri River on the Montana-North Dakota border, west to Fort Benton (1847). They were built of adobe, sticks, mud, and/or logs.
“The horse is inspired by Russell’s beloved Monte. In 1881 Russell purchased the bay pinto in a Crow village and owned him until Monte died in 1904. The pinto appeared in many of Russell’s paintings until he purchased Neenah in 1899. Russell loved to dress up in Indian garb, and it is not difficult to imagine that he has painted himself into this work. The painting has much more detail than is typical in this period, and the landscape is well-filled out. It’s right up there with the best in terms of subject detailing and paint handling. This is yet another outstanding tribute to Russell’s West when ‘The Land Belonged to God.’”
PROVENANCE
Dan O’Shea Gallery, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1969
Jacob Bunn, Jr., Scottsdale, Arizona
David W. Wonnich, by descent
Private collection, 2014
