Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1156244
SiG MT 33 e Signal Glass • 1916, Oil on canvas • National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Charles S. Jones Collection, museum purchase with funding provided by Joel McCrea is work is one of a number of man and bear encounters that Russell painted over the years. Its backdrop is likely that of the Rocky Mountains in Glacier National Park, where he had a summer cabin. Russell's story, "Hank Winter's Bear Fight," proves that the artist was just as de with a pen as he was with a brush, "I plunge into the brush through the timber, lookin' for trouble, an' It ain't long till I find It. I'm just climbin' down a ledge of rock when I hear a roar like all hell's turned loose, an' that bear's on me before I can bat an eye…I fire one shot, but I'm so raled she goes wild. Before I can throw In another ca'tridge he knocks the gun loose from my hand and his claws tear my right sleeve from the shoulder down….But just as everything's turnin' black I hear Bed-Rock's Winchester…When I come to I ain't got rags enough on me to pad a crutch…" Signal Glass is the largest painting presented in 1919 and also number one in the catalogue produced by Nancy Russell to go with the Calgary show. Surprisingly, this painting was never sold – it was in Nancy's possession at the time of her death. It is a truly classic Russell masterpiece showing his mastery of color and his ability to work with light and atmosphere. As an artist, Russell loved to paint the foreground in shadow with the main subject(s) rising above the horizon line and the glow in the background as the sun hits the distant hills and peaks. A number of paintings in this exhibition represent the classic light. is painting was finished in 1916 and a New Yorker who had previously purchased pieces from the Russells offered to purchase and donate it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art but he received a leer declining the offer telling him the museum felt it was too large and they already had too much Western art ("two Remingtons and a Schoyer" [Schreyvogel?]). e ame is original e Price of His Hide • 1915, Oil on canvas • Petrie Collection, Denver, Colorado