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he year 2019 marks the one hundredth anniversary of Calgary's 1919 "Victory" Stampede, which billed itself as a world's championship frontier contest and victory celebration that marked the end of the Great War. While the event was inspired by a string of Allied celebrations taking place across the globe, the spirit that undergirded it was undoubtedly western American. Taking place August 25–30, 1919, the Stampede was embraced by businesses and residents alike across Calgary and became a means through which to deliver the West and its cowboys, broncs, ropers, and steer wrestlers to audiences across western Canada and the Pacific Northwest. Already at the apex of his career, Charles M. Russell was invited by rodeo showman and Stampede manager Guy Weadick to mount a fine art exhibition of his paintings and sculptures at Stampede Park, then known as Victoria Park. It would be the artist's second time to do so, as he had exhibited in Calgary at the 1912 Stampede. Charles and Nancy Russell shipped north twenty-four paintings and eight bronzes for the show, nine of which sold before year's end. Such was the strength of Russell's subject maer and execution in this period, his artistic prime. With Return to Calgary: Charles M. Russell and the 1919 Victory Stampede, the C. M. Russell Museum extends its reach as a chronicler of western history and American art into the Canadian borderlands to examine a period of history when the city of Calgary sought to promote its own brand of western heritage in establishing its civic identity. e accompanying catalogue serves as a lasting visual record of Russell's 1919 special exhibition at the Calgary Victory Stampede and underscores the Stampede's importance to the successful marketing and sale of Russell's art abroad. e seed of inspiration for this project was sown in 2012 at the Glenbow Museum of Art in Calgary, where Russell's exhibition at the first Calgary Stampede, in 1912, was restaged. Seven years hence, we are pleased and proud that our institution is leading the effort to produce this major show, celebrating the artist's return to Calgary in 1919 to aend the second Calgary Stampede, held to commemorate the end of the Great War. On view in Great Falls from June 7 to September 30, 2019, Return to Calgary: Charles M. Russell and the 1919 Victory Stampede will encompass twenty-one of the twenty-four paintings and all eight bronzes that were originally on display. e generosity of our lenders, totaling fourteen public and private collections, has allowed us to nearly replicate this landmark exhibition of Russell's work while adding fresh scholarship and perspectives on many of these masterworks. Please enjoy, on the following pages, a sampling of what you can expect when you visit the C.M. Russell Museum's Return to Calgary exhibition. SiG MT 32 Return to Calgary: Charles M. Russell and the 1919 Victory Stampede Thomas A. Petrie T

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