145

VERSO
Label, The Folsom Galleries, New York, New York

The Breaks is recorded in the C. M. Russell Catalogue Raisonné.

According to Russell historian Dr. Larry Len Peterson, “This museum quality gem is the most historically significant Russell watercolor to come to auction in years. In his first major national exhibit and what has to rank as one of the greatest shows of his life, Charlie stormed New York City with the ‘West That Has Past’ at the Folsom Galleries, which ran from April 12 to May 1, 1911. Most of the great paintings Russell had been working on over the past few years were displayed, along with six of his bronzes. The thirteen oils included such famous paintings as The Medicine Man, The Smoke of a .45, Jerked Down, The Wagon Boss, When Horse Flesh Comes High, In Without Knocking, When Sioux and Blackfeet Meet, and Sun Worshippers. Twelve watercolors, including Bronc to Breakfast and The Breaks, complemented the oils. Three new bronzes, The Lunch Hour, Mountain Sheep, and Nature’s Cattle, were joined by three others that had been cast earlier: Buffalo Hunt, Counting Coup, and The Scalp Dance. A Folsom Galleries label is still affixed to the back frame of the watercolor, showing that Captain Lilienthal, member of the famed Union League (founded in 1863), purchased it. Fifteen presidents were members of the League, including Theodore Roosevelt and Ulysses S. Grant. The label is the only one known to survive from the Folsom Galleries show. The sculpture of Nature’s Cattle, which was the inspiration for The Breaks, was described as ‘three buffalo, bull, cow, and calf walking along a path, single file.’ The bison was the animal closest to the Great Spirit on the Plains. The Plains Indian obtained food, clothing, shelter, and tools from the bison and prayed directly to it in thanks for all that it provided for them. The king of the plains was seen as another intermediary between the Indian and the Great Spirit.

“Russell’s wife and business manager, Nancy paid Arthur Hoeber, a popular writer for the New York Evening Globe, to provide an essay for the six-page Folsom Galleries exhibition catalog. In the third paragraph the hired gun Hoeber wrote, ‘Yet, punching cattle, hunting the buffalo, trailing about after the Redman, living the true life of the plains, Mr. Russell singularly enough, guarded scrupulously as the most precious part of his belonging, his paint box! Though he has yet to see the inside of an art school and though no fellow artist has given him any aid, Mr. Russell has always drawn and painted. Naturally too, he has found inspiration in clay and wax, modeling his figures when he was in doubt as to movement and mass, and so finally discovering he could express himself equally well in plastic form.’ In the Tribune interview, Charlie, as expected, misstated his age, embellished his time with the Indians in Canada, and stated that most of his work was painted in the great outdoors, which certainly wasn’t true. Joining the bandwagon, Literary Digest magazine, which frequently had featured a Russell painting on its cover, chimed in, ‘The East may have thought that pictorially the West belongs to Remington, but out of that very quarter comes a man to dispute the monopoly.’ The payoff for a well-executed media blitz by Nancy was immediate. Businessman Willis Sharpe Kilmer of Binghampton, New York jumped at the opportunity to purchase The Medicine Man for $1,000 ($30,000 today).

“Bison, living relics of the past, were majestic and deeply affecting with their dark liquid eyes. They became Russell’s favorite animal to paint and inspired his cipher, which accompanied his signature on almost every one of his works he completed. Perhaps, Pulitzer-prize winning author, Kiowa N. Scott Momaday, summarized Russell’s feelings about The Breaks best. He observed that ‘it was a farewell of tragic significance: a dark, massive animal vitally moving inexorably away from existence. It’s a shadow within a shadow.’ In 2016 with 350,000 scattered over the U.S, the bison was named the national mammal. Hope springs eternal.”

PROVENANCE
Charles and Nancy Russell
Captain Lilienthal, 1911
Private collection, Colorado
Fred A. Rosenstock Books, Denver, Colorado
Private collection, 1997

EXHIBITION
The West That Has Passed, Folsom Galleries, New York, New York, 1911

LITERATURE
Larry Len Peterson, Charles M. Russell, Legacy: Printed and Published Works of Montana’s Cowboy Artist, C. M. Russell Museum and Falcon Publishing, 1999, pp. 240, 243, illustrated

Condition ReportAs viewed through glass. Paper appears to be in excellent condition.

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.