2023 Coeur d’Alene Art Auction / Lot 7418 / 306 • View Catalog •
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According to Goodwin biographer Dr. Larry Len Peterson, “No artist painted more images of bears in human-like poses than Goodwin, and no artist’s illustrations on this theme were more widely circulated. Through books, periodicals, and advertisements, Goodwin’s work was viewed in almost every household, hardware store, sporting goods business, and mercantile in America. Of the many camp mischief paintings he completed, there is no finer one than this offering. The startled outdoorsmen don’t look happy, but it’s their own fault. The Law of the Wilderness is, ‘You don’t leave food in your tent or canoe where bear can discover it.’
“Goodwin’s influence on other artists is well known. For example, America’s wood sculptor, Blackfeet John L. Clarke tacked up Goodwin’s bear illustrations on his studio’s walls for inspiration and guidance. Clarke sold endless numbers of whimsical bear figures to adoring tourists out of his studio next to Glacier Park Hotel on the east side of Glacier National Park. Playful cubs were the deaf artist’s best seller. In part, Clarke was attracted to bear subjects because they figured prominently in Indian folklore, society, and religion. The Blackfeet believed bears were part human. Supporting this was the observation that bears at times stood like humans and walked forward and backward or sat with their hind feet sticking straight out, making them seem more humanlike. One of Clarke’s most avid patrons recorded reminiscences about discussions he had with the artist regarding some of the carvings he had purchased from him. One was a sitting bear with a small bottle in his arms. The collector recalled, ‘When I first saw it the bear had a whiskey bottle in the clutch of his arm. His face seems to be disturbed. John wanted me to buy it badly but I told him I felt the face wasn’t just right. John scowled at me and wrote me a note. ‘Bear drunk.’ And when one looks at this carving from this point of view, it is a very good work.’
“Goodwin’s endless imagination also prompted his friend Charles M. Russell to complete a number of clay models of bears that were cast in bronze along with dozens of hand painted wax and plaster models that were given as gifts. Oh! Mother, What is it? is a fine example. The wary mother cuddles her cubs as she peers at a porcupine. As Russell sculpture authority Rick Stewart observed, ‘The wildlife subject, with its family overtones on a human scale, was very much in the spirit of progressive nature writing of the day, and a sculpture such as this one had the potential to become very popular with a broad audience.’
“Another of Russell’s anthropomorphic bronzes was Bear with the Jug. It is a fine personification of human mischief. The model was similar in composition to a 1907 – the year Goodwin first visited Russell – widely-circulated postcard featuring a painting by Russell of a bear drinking out of a whiskey bottle. Genius loves company.”
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Ridgewood, New Jersey
LITERATURE
Larry Len Peterson, Philip R. Goodwin: America’s Sporting & Wildlife Artist, Coeur d’Alene Art Auction and Settlers West Galleries, 2001, p. 288, illustrated
