130
Russell, Charles M. (1864 - 1926)
Currency:USD
Category:Art
Start Price:110,000.00 USD
Estimated At:110,000.00 - 135,000.00 USD
NOT SOLD (BIDDING OVER)
0.00USD+ applicable fees & taxes.
This item WAS NOT SOLD. Auction date was 2003 Nov 08 @ 13:30UTC-07:00 : PDT/MST
<strong>Russell, Charles M. </strong>
(1864 - 1926)
<strong>The Victor (Counting Coup)</strong>
watercolor and gouache on paper
15 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches (sight)
signed lower left: <i>C.M. Russell with artist's cipher</i>
Russell's respect for and belief in the nobility of the American Indian can be seen throughout his oeuvre. He was mindful of their customs and keenly aware of the courage and bravery with which their warriors went to battle. On more than one occasion, he depicted skirmishes and battles among different Indian tribes, in which an individual's honor reigned supreme. These larger intertribal struggles are the subject of at least two important oil paintings: <i>Counting Coup, The War Scars of Medicine Whip</i> in the Sid Richardson Collection and <i>For Supremacy</i> in the Amon Carter Museum. Both of these paintings depict full-scale, dynamic battles between warring Indians on horseback with weapons at the ready. Russell also depicted more intimate battle scenes, as in <i>Duel to the Death</i> in the Amon Carter Museum. In this watercolor, two Indians on horseback are engaged in a fierce struggle, just as one decisively stabs the other through the side, causing him to fall backward.
In <i>The Victor,</i> Russell depicted the well known Indian custom of Counting Coup, which often involved taking the scalp-lock of one's enemy once he had been killed. The victorious brave could then take this proof of his victory and upheld honor back to his tribe. Russell does not flinch from the grizzly details. The victor stands in a classic, heroic pose, with one foot pressed into his defeated challenger's back. He waves his bounty triumphantly, with his arm raised and his head held high, the knife still in his other hand. His weapon, a gun, lies on the ground, no match for the bow that lies at his opponent's side. There is not much detail in the surrounding landscape to distract the viewer's eye; Russell clearly wanted the fatal end of this conflict to be the sole
focal point of the composition. In contrast to the ongoing battle scenes mentioned above, here
Russell depicted the quiet moment after the worst has taken place. The viewer is left to contemplate the ferocity of the battle that occurred not long before the scalp was held aloft.—DW
Provenance:
Private Collection, Texas
Literature:
Frederic Renner, <i>Charles M. Russell: Paintings, Drawings, and Scultpure in the Amon Carter Museum,</i> New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., rev. ed. 1974
<i>Charles M. Russell: Paintings of the Old American West,</i> with an introduction by Louis Chapin, New York, New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1978
Brian Dippie, <i>Remington & Russell: The Sid Richardson Collection,</i> Austin,
Texas: University of Texas Press, 1982
Brian Dippie, <i>Looking at Russell,</i> Fort Worth, Texas: Amon Carter Museum, 1987
<i>Charles M. Russell: The Artist in His Heyday,</i> Santa Fe, New Mexico: Gerald Peters Gallery, 1995
Auction Location:
United States
Previewing Details:
November 7 from 5pm-8pm and November 8 from 9am-1pm
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