According to Russell historian Dr. Rick Stewart, “As noted in the catalogue entry for A Bronc Twister, the term ‘weaver’ refers to a specific action of a bucking horse-something Russell would have known and fully understood when he conceived it in sculpture. The same is true of The Bucker and the Buckaroo, which accurately depicts the behavior of a horse known to seasoned riders as a ‘sunfisher.’ According to Ramon Adams, “‘Sunfishing’ was a term used when a horse twisted his body into a crescent … or, in other words, when he seemed to try to touch the ground with first one shoulder and then the other, letting the sunlight hit his belly. Such a horse was called a ‘sunfisher.’” Russell, who could depict the myriad contortions of a bucking horse with consummate skill, claimed to have some firsthand experience with the subject. He once explained to Will James, ‘I never got to be a bronc rider but in my youthful days wanted to be and while that want lasted, I had a fine chance to study hoss enatimy from under and over. The under was a view a teripan gets. The over while I hoverd at the end of a McCarty rope was like an eagle sees-grand but dam scary for folks without wings. And, what I wanted was the saddle horn and it was far, far below me. Maby you’v been thair, looking down on a hoss with plenty of legs but no head. They ust to play peek-a boo with me lots.’”

PROVENANCE
Col. R. L. Harrison, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1940s
Present owner, by descent

LITERATURE
Rick Stewart, Charles M. Russell, Sculptor, Amon Carter Museum, 1994, pp. 268-73, example illustrated

• Charles M. Russell’s Past Results
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