Reunited: Russell at the Calgary Stampede
A century after their unveiling at the Calgary Stampede, masterworks by Charles M. Russell are brought back together in Great Falls.
Art exhibitions come and go. The good ones get insightful catalogs or get to travel to other venues. The great ones inspire the culture and a new generation of artists. And occasionally, one gets to live forever.
In 1919, Charles M. Russell, at the peak of his career, sent 24 paintings and eight bronzes to the Calgary Stampede for an exhibition tied to
the opening of the rodeo, which was returning to Calgary after several missed years due to World War I. The work Russell sent north to Canada was essentially a greatest hits collection. Masterpiece after masterpiece, these works were inspired by or created specifically for the nowlegendary exhibition at the Calgary Stampede. And now, 100 years later, they’re being brought together again to celebrate Russell’s presence in Calgary that fateful summer. Return to Calgary: Charles M. Russell and the 1919 Victory Stampede will reunite 21 of 24 paintings, and all eight bronzes, that were shown a century ago. The exhibition, which opens June 7 at the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana, was never a slam dunk as far as exhibitions go. Tracking down all the works Russell showed in Calgary that year was no easy task, especially considering that the C.M. Russell Museum owned none
of the paintings and had to turn to private collectors and other institutions to secure the loans to complete as much of the exhibition that was conceivably possible. Even with an extraordinary team, the museum was three paintings short: one piece was in a private collection that chose not to lend the work; The Queens War Hounds is playing a pivotal role in a reinstallation at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton; and Black Tail—buffalo Days has not been located, although the museum has photographs of it. All three will be represented in the exhibition by photographs.
What they were able to assemble for the show is nothing short of miraculous, says Emily Wilson, the museum’s curator. “These are Russell masterworks. They were major pieces then, and major pieces today,” she says, adding that 14 lenders helped bring together the 21 paintings. In several instances, loans were secured after C.M. Russell Museum board chair Tom Petrie offered to loan Russell masterworks from his own collection to museums that may have been otherwise reluctant to part with their paintings. “This show has been on our radar for about two years. Our board chair was instrumental in making it happen. After the Glenbow [Museum of Art] put on a show looking at Russell’s work from the 1912 Stampede, [Petrie] had been under the impression we would eventually stage
a show in 2019 for the 1919 exhibition. It would be a shame not to. The 1912 show was a great story to tell, because in many ways it’s an origin story to this one, but the 1919 show was certainly important because it was the end of the Great War, which is why they called it the Victory Stampede.”
Canada, like much of the world, bled during the war—as many as 60,000 Canadians never returned home—and was joyous at its conclusion at the end of 1918. “People needed a rest from the barrage. They were watching the newsreels and seeing how horrendous it all was, and when the war ended they wanted to celebrate by getting back to things that made them think of their roots, things that made them nostalgic for better times. It was also a celebration of peace. And that’s where the Victory Stampede came in,” says Wilson, adding that even Russell had friends, or sons of friends, who had been sent into the terror of the Great War. “We do have a few illustrative letters by Russell that show he had a spirit about the war, how we should be fighting and how we have to get the kaiser’s men. He had said at one time that they should send the Native Americans there to show their fierceness.”
The summer after the armistice, Canadians were still jubilant, and the Calgary Stampede, held August 25 through 30 in 1919, came at a great time. There was a rodeo component, a huge parade that marked the beginning of the festivities, and an art exhibition, of which Russell was the star. The artist had already made a huge splash in the States after a successful one-man exhibition in New York in 1911, but by 1919 Russell was deep into his best and most important period of work.
“…[t]he 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,” writes Petrie in the catalog. “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. The success of his first venture and the tantalizing possibility of meeting the Prince of Wales, whose royal party was set to tour Canada that summer, guaranteed Charles and Nancy Russell’s participation. The pair shipped north 24 paintings and eight bronzes for the show, nine of which sold before year’s end. Such was the strength of Russell’s subject matter and execution in this period, his artistic prime.”
Works included in the show then—and now, a century later—are Russell classics, images like the 72-inch-wide The Signal Glass from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, White Man’s Buffalo from the Gilcrease and Catching Fresh Mounts from the Cincinnati Art Museum. In addition to prominent works that depict Native Americans, Russell also showed a number of important cowboy and range works, including The Range Mother, which shows a mother cow aiming her horns at a cowboy who’s roping her calf, and Loops and Swift Horses are Surer than Lead, a depiction of two cowboys roping a bear in a majestic landscape scene. Bears also play roles in When the Nose of a Horse Beats the Eyes of a Man and The Price of His Hide, which both show Russell’s fascination with the danger and wildness of the West. Elsewhere in the exhibition, in Call of the Law, two wanted outlaws are woken by a rifle-toting lawman who pulls aside his duster to reveal a sheriff’s badge. Other pieces in the show, such as Whiskey Smugglers Caught with the Goods, show Northwest Mounted Police, which would have likely enticed local Canadian collectors.
The bronze works are not as well known, but Russell fans will certainly recognize several key depictions, including his wolves, bighorn sheep, bears and bison. The Native American bronzes are especially powerful, including
Smoking to the Spirit of the Buffalo, which includes one of Russell’s famous buffalo skulls.
For Wilson, who is curating an exhibition around the original 1919 exhibition, it was a challenge to tell a story around the Calgary Stampede works. “As great as Russell’s images are, they in and of themselves don’t tell a story about the Calgary Stampede, and because they don’t tell a larger story about the Stampede I’m in a position that I can tell a story about the artworks themselves,” Wilson says, adding that she will include numerous photographs, artifacts, posters that Russell illustrated for the rodeo and film footage from the 1923 event to help bring visitors into the C.M. Russell Museum’s restaging of the 1919 exhibition. “My ultimate hope is that everything we do will speak to the idea that this is a masterworks show for Russell.”
Russell scholar Brian W. Dippie, who also edited and contributed to the catalog, says that museum visitors should feel transported back to the 1919 show when they visit the new exhibition. “The thrill for the people who know Russell is to walk into the gallery and see the exact same paintings they would have seen in 1919,” he says. “And just think of walking into that exhibition and seeing Russell works on the walls and for sale for the first time. This was Russell at his prime, and everything is exceptional, and you can pick and choose which paintings you want. It’s astonishing to think about.”
Dippie likes to point out that Weadick, the show organizer who brought Russell into the 1919 exhibition, is one of the heroes of the story of the Calgary Stampede. “He’s hugely important to this story. He was the visionary dreamer of the Calgary Stampede in 1912. And after the war he brought it back in 1919 with exceptional results,” he says. In the catalog, when describing the 1912 event, Dippie writes: “At 27 and with energy to spare, Weadick organized the Stampede in a matter of months. Enticing Charles M. Russell to attend and exhibit his work was a coup almost as important as attracting rodeo contestants from across the West. An established celebrity, the Cowboy Artist lent credibility to the whole affair.”
By the time of the 1919 Victory Stampede, Russell and Weadick were well acquainted and eager to work together again. The two were photographed together in Calgary at the train station, presumably after Russell arrived in town. Weadick is near the center of the picture, tall and wearing a bowtie with a large hat. He’s standing next to Nancy Russell, who is standing shoulder to shoulder with artist Edward Borein, who also showed artwork at the 1919 exhibition. Charlie Russell, then 55 years old, can be seen on the far right wearing a suit with his hat pulled down, casting a shadow over his eyes. As best anyone can tell, the photo is likely the only shot of Russell in Calgary for what would become one of his most famous exhibitions. Like the show itself, Russell’s presence in Calgary has passed into myth, but the artwork debuted that summer remains a testament to his power as an artist and Western icon.
Return to Calgary: Charles M. Russel and the 1919 Victory Stampede will continue through September 30 in Great Falls. Concurrently with the exhibition, the C.M. Russell Museum is partnering with the Calgary Stampede to present a companion exhibition at the Western Oasis in Stampede Park in Calgary. The exhibition, which runs from July 5 through 14, will feature gicleés of all 24 paintings Russell brought to the 1919 exhibition.
Return to Calgary: Charles M. Russel and the 1919 Victory Stampede June 7-September 30, 2019 C.M. Russell Museum 400 13th Street North, Great Falls, MT 59401 (406) 727-8787, www.cmrussell.org