2022 Coeur d’Alene Art Auction / Lot 174
According to Rick Stewart, “Russell modeled the small figure of a wolf shying away from a bottle in 1920. Like the artist’s first depiction of a wolf in bronze, The Last Laugh, it is in ashtray form and represents the wolf’s controversial relationship with man. Russell’s title, To Noses That Read, A Smell That Spells Man, appears on the surface of the base – one of the few instances where he inscribed a title directly on one of his bronze subjects. In a skillfully rendered moment, the wary animal recoils from the scent of an object that represents the wolf’s bitter enemy, man.”
PROVENANCE
The artist
James and Josephine Woods, Willows, California
Private collection, by descent
LITERATURE
Rick Stewart, Charles M. Russell, Sculptor, Amon Carter Museum, 1994, pp. 243-48, illustrated