2026 Coeur d’Alene Art Auction69 / 80 • View Catalog •
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VERSO
Label, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia
Label, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming
Label, Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta
Label, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona
Pablo-Allard Buffalo Drive is included in the C. M. Russell Catalogue Raisonné as number CR.RNR.15. A set of eight Norman A. Forsyth stereograph cards depicting the Pablo Buffalo Roundup will accompany the lot.
According to Russell scholar Dr. Larry Len Peterson, “The Pablo Buffalo Roundup was one of the quintessential experiences of Charles M. Russell’s artistic life. His ability to capture the bison in paint and sculpture significantly improved as a result of his participation in the event. Russell studied the wooly beast more closely than any other artist and immortalized the celebrated legend of the plains in oil, watercolor, clay, bronze, and nostalgic prose and poetry. The bison, symbol of the American West, inspired Russell to create his famous cipher and his most desirable art, the buffalo hunt. The species name for the American bison is Bison bison, often popularly called buffalo. In 1881 the Blackfeet had their last great hunt, bringing in 150,000 animals. With the commercial hunters killing another 320,000 buffalo, the animals were headed toward extinction. The killing came to an end in 1883, when the Blackfeet netted their last six animals.
“In 1907 the Pablo Buffalo Roundup would rescue one of the last herds, which roamed the land below Flathead Lake in northwestern Montana, south of Glacier National Park. After Michel Pablo of mixed-blood Flathead heritage had unsuccessfully attempted to sell his herd to the U.S. government, the Canadian government in 1907 stepped in and agreed to buy 700 head for $200,000, over $6 million in today’s money.
“Preparations soon were underway for the roundup. Heavy chutes and twenty-four-inch-wide timber corrals were built at the railroad yards at Ravalli, Montana. Pablo had hoped to have the bison rounded up in a few months, but they proved to be formidable adversaries. Fewer than one-hundred were corralled in 1907 – it would not be until 1912 that the last of the herd was shipped to Canada. With disappointing results the first year, a twenty-six-mile-long fence was built from the grazing area to the shipyards, and smaller corrals were built within the fence. The Pend Oreille River – now called the Flathead – and its cliffs were used as a natural barrier, with the assistance of log booms, to prevent the bison from swimming away. The captives were shipped by rail to their final destination. More than seventy-five riders took part in the extravaganza and for their hazardous work were paid $5 a day and chow.
“Russell often relied on imagination to create his masterpieces, but in this work real life experiences were his guide. Despite being a spectator at the November 1908 roundup, he was an active participant the next spring. Exhilarated from the challenges the roundup presented, he couldn’t wait to memorialize it in paint back in his Great Falls studio. Instead, the cowboy artist painted several watercolors while lying on his stomach in his camp tent. In this fine example, two of Russell’s favorite subjects, the cowboy and the bison, merge into one in an action-packed watercolor that is at once intimate and panoramic.”
PROVENANCE
Blanche Scott, Red Deer, Canada
Frederic G. and Ginger K. Renner, Paradise Valley, Arizona, 1987
Estate of Joseph T. and Florence O’Connor, Vancouver, Canada
Present owner, by descent
EXHIBITED
Bison in Art, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming, 1977
150 Years of Watercolour Painting in Alberta, Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Canada, 1980-81
Charles M. Russell: The Frederic G. Renner Collection, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona; C. M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, Montana; Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, 1981
Capturing Western Legends: Russell and Remington’s Canadian Frontier, Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Canada, 2004
Victoria Collects, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, Canada, 2012
LITERATURE
Charles M. Russell, The Frederic G. Renner Collection, Phoenix Art Museum, 1981, p. 32, illustrated
