54

According to Peter Hassrick, now the director of The American Institute of Western American Art at the Denver Art Museum, “For many, the symbol of the North American continent lies not in the people or politics which guide it through history, but in the land itself and the native animals which have long thrived there. It has not only been artists who have recognized in their observations of the natural world a pervasive force emblematic of America’s greatness—there seems to be a place in the hearts of all men. Yet, there was one man, Carl Clemens Maritz Rungius, whose vision of that symbol exceeded most others and whose acuteness of observation brought the natural beauty of his world to those who could never see for themselves.

“Rungius, born in Berlin in 1869, first came to America in 1894, to visit an uncle in Brooklyn and go moose hunting in Maine. They found no moose that summer, but it was for the best as the disappointment caused Rungius to stay for another season. The following summer, at the invitation of the colorful Wyoming outfitter, Ira Dodge, Rungius spent five months on the East Fork of the Green River in the shadow of the dramatic Wind River Mountains. It was an area known to provide initial inspiration for the many great western artists, Alfred Jacob Miller and Albert Bierstadt being two of the earliest. From this time on, the Far West and Rockies became Rungius’ studio, the abundant wildlife his models. He traveled to Yellowstone and Jackson Hole sketching, hunting, and collecting specimens from which to work when he returned east.”

William A. Read, a partner in the investment bank, Dylan Read, was also an avid hunter and fly fisherman. The Read family still owns and maintains Three Star Camp, one of the original Great Camps in the Adirondacks near Tupper Lake.

PROVENANCE
The Artist
William A. Read, Purchase, NY 1930s
Present owner, by descent

Condition ReportSurface condition is good. Painting has been lined. Multiple cracks in foreground, below bears. Several cracks in and around big bear. Craquelure in sky and mountains. Vertical cracking along stretcher bar on left side. Thin lines of inpainting along stretcher bars throughout.

Important Notice: Statements of condition are provided as a service to potential bidders; such statements are educated opinions and should not be regarded as facts. The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction has no responsibility for any errors or omissions.