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Bugling Elk was used in an advertisement for Peters Big Game Ammunition. A framed copy of the ad accompanies the lot.

According to Goodwin biographer Larry Len Peterson, “In the fall of 1911 the Peters Cartridge Company published four advertising posters that had been illustrated by Philip R. Goodwin: a grizzly bear and cubs; an elk (Bugling Elk); a caribou; and four rams. They comprise some of his finest renderings of wildlife. Goodwin had just returned from a six week hunting/sketching trip with Carl Rungius in Banff, Alberta, Canada. The year before he had visited his friend Charles M. Russell at his Bull Head Lodge in Glacier National Park.

“The Peters Cartridge Company was founded in 1887 in Kings Mills, Ohio and specialized in gunpowder and ammunition production. By 1889 they were producing over four thousand cartridges a day becoming one of the largest ammunition companies in the country. It was natural for them to call on Philip R. Goodwin to produce paintings for advertising calendars, envelopes, die-cut counter signs, and posters as he had done for Winchester, Remington, and Marlin, among others. After illustrating two of the most successful adventure books in American history, Jack London’s Call of the Wild (1903) and Theodore Roosevelt’s African Game Trails (1909), Goodwin was easily the most noted and successful illustrator of sporting art. Peters would not be disappointed with their poster commission. Many consider Goodwin’s magnificent Bugling Elk the best of his big game paintings.”

LITERATURE
Larry Len Peterson, Philip R. Goodwin: America’s Sporting & Wildlife Artist (Hayden, ID and Tucson, AZ: The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction and Settlers West Galleries, 2001), p 144, illustrated advertisement

Condition ReportSurface condition is good. Bar marks and hairline cracking throughout. Large spots of inpainting in sky, around elk's antlers, and along right, left, and bottom edges.

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.