According to Russell biographer Dr. Larry Len Peterson, “The buffalo hunt was the quintessential subject in Charles M. Russell’s repertoire. At the heart of his desire to capture this exhilarating sport was his love of the Indian’s past way of life and his confidence in the ability to capture arrested motion. He was the ultimate nostalgic who grabbed history and married it to idealized memory and imagination. For example, despite Russell never witnessing a buffalo hunt, it became the basis for his most popular and desired art. Nancy Russell explained, ‘No man can be a painter without imagination.’ The Romantic art of the nineteenth century was the cornerstone to build the West reimagined for not only Russell, but also his contemporaries and future artists.

“While he would sculpt two clay models of buffalo hunts, The Buffalo Hunt (1905) and Meat for Wild Men (1924) intended to be cast in bronze, Russell completed dozens of paintings of his favorite subject. So many were completed that decades later they were numbered. This fine work was numbered thirty-five, but there would be many more to follow. Russell art historian Dr. Rick Stewart wrote, ‘No American artist studied the buffalo more closely or absorbed more of its natural history on the open prairies prior to the advent of the white man than did Russell. To him, the buffalo was the living symbol of a frontier that had passed before his eyes.’ He immortalized this great monarch of the plains in oil, watercolor, clay, bronze, and nostalgic prose and poetry. The bison, symbol of the American West, inspired Charles M. Russell to create his famous cipher and his most desirable art, the buffalo hunt. As Russell authority Dr. Brian W. Dippie astutely commented, ‘The buffalo skull is to the western plains what the tree stump is to the eastern forest: a symbol of progress that leaves in its wake an uneasy sense of loss.’

“The species name for the American bison is Bison bison, often popularly called buffalo. They were known to the Spanish explorers as cibola, bisonte, or armente. Lakota called them tatanka. The bison is the largest of North American land animals. They can run up to thirty-five miles per hour and sustain that speed for thirty minutes. In 1881 the Blackfeet, featured in this watercolor, had their last great hunt, bringing in 150,000 animals. With the commercial hunters killing another 320,000 buffalo, the animals were headed to extinction. The federal government believed exterminating one of the prime sources of food, clothing and spirituality for the plains Indian would be the most efficient method of corralling them on to reservations. The killing came to an end in 1883, when the Blackfeet netted their last six animals. After the turn-of-the-century, the bison remained a symbol of the American West, and in 1905 the American Bison Society was founded by Theodore Roosevelt and William T. Hornaday to help preserve the species. From their efforts and others, today there are around 500,000 bison in the United States.

“Meat for Wild Men was completed in 1903, one of the most important years in Russell’s life. His log-cabin studio next to his home in Great Falls, Montana was finished early in the year. Almost every artwork that Charlie completed was finished there, which served also as a gathering place for his friends and admirers. This painting most likely was one of the first completed in his new studio. In the fall of 1903, the Russells traveled to St. Louis for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Huge exhibition halls lined a reflecting pool and were adorned with massive outdoor sculptures by America’s leading sculptures. Works included Destiny of the Red Man by Adolph Weinman, The Sioux Chief by Cyrus Dallin, The Buffalo Dance by Solon Borglum, and Cowboy on a Tear (Coming through the Rye) by Frederic Remington. In the expansive Art Palace (now the St. Louis Art Museum) Russell viewed more than 350 works by ninety-three sculptors. A number of these depicted wildlife and Western subjects. By sheer luck Charlie had run into John Marchand, a nationally recognized illustrator, and Will Crawford, one of the most outstanding pen-and-ink artists of the period, just before his train was leaving Great Falls for St. Louis. They urged the Russells to come to New York where they could introduce them to other artists, gallery owners, magazine editors, and art exhibitions. While there he befriended America’s sporting and wildlife artist, Philip R. Goodwin. Goodwin’s influence along with his 1903 travels would have a profound influence on the advancement of his art as demonstrated in this masterpiece.

“This offering is a fine example of Russell’s favorite subject. His buffalo hunts are timeless, paying tribute to the past, present, and future. Just like history, his art is more about the future than the past. It’s bread for the journey.”

PROVENANCE
Charles Schatzlein, Butte, Montana
Homer E. Britzman, Pasadena, California
J. N. Bartfield Galleries, New York, New York, 1989
Private collection, Wyoming

EXHIBITED
Fred A. Rosenstock Collection of Charles M. Russell Paintings and Bronzes, Denver Public Library, Denver, Colorado, 1970

LITERATURE
Duke Davis, Flashlights from Mountain and Plain, Pentecostal Union, 1911, p. 15, illustrated
“When Buffalo Roamed Plains and Bulls Found for Herds; Hunters Killed Millions.” Montana Newspaper Association Inserts, November 26, 1917, illustrated
“5,000 Buffalo Killed By Sioux Indians.” Rocky Mountain Husbandman, August 8, 1940, p. 8, illustrated
A. M. Hartung, “The American Buffalo.” Cattleman, vol. XXVIII, no. 8, January 1942, p. 12, illustrated
Homer E. Britzman, “Charles M. Russell, Friend of the Indian.” Arizona Highways, vol. XXIX, no. 8, August 1953, illustrated

• Charles M. Russell’s Past Results

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