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Lot 133
Charles Marion Russell(1864-1926)Nature's Cattle 4in high
19 November 2018, 18:00 PST
Los AngelesUS$80,000 - US$120,000
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Charles Marion Russell (1864-1926)
Nature's Cattle
inscribed 'C.M. Russell / ©' and 'CMR' with skull insignia (along the base) and stamped 'ROMAN BRONZE WORKS N.Y.' (along edge of base)
bronze with brown patina
4in high
Modeled in 1911
inscribed 'C.M. Russell / ©' and 'CMR' with skull insignia (along the base) and stamped 'ROMAN BRONZE WORKS N.Y.' (along edge of base)
bronze with brown patina
4in high
Modeled in 1911
Footnotes
Provenance
James Graham & Sons, New York, New York.
The Patrick A. Doheny Trust, Beverly Hills, California, since 1952.
Literature
Rick Stewart, Charles M. Russell: Sculptor, Fort Worth, Texas, 1944, pp. 174-77, no. R-7, other examples illustrated.
Charles Marion Russell began his artistic exploration with sculpture as a child molding clay into simple forms. While he lacked formal training in the field, his contemporaries considered him quite gifted and acknowledged the sense of "romance" and "freedom" that his bronzes evoked. In Nature's Cattle, Russell employs these sensibilities with his depiction of a family of Bison, including a buffalo, cow and the calf, walking to water.
According to Rick Stewart, "In 1908, Russell participated in the roundup and transfer of a privately owned buffalo herd to the Canadian government, and he took full advantage of this unique opportunity to observe the creatures at close range." (Charles M. Russell, Sculptor, Fort Worth, Texas, 1994, p. 174.) During this roundup, it is assumed that the artist would have had the opportunity to see the animals walking to water many times and may have been inspired to work on this subject as a result.
Russell was acutely aware of the strain that the non-Native Americans placed on the natural habitat of the plains and their peoples. In fact, both Nature's Cattle and the watercolor Buffalo on the Move (lot 35) represent the buffalo as bold, powerful and breathtaking, almost in commemoration of the creature as they were rapidly vanishing.
As many as ten casts of Nature's Cattle may have been produced including two works by Roman Bronze Works, New York, and three by Benjamin Zappo for a total of five casts between 1911 and 1916. After 1927, five more casts were made between California Art Bronze Foundry and Roman Bronze works, of which the present work is likely one.