Lost & Found
A Western Art Collector article led to the re-discovery of a lost Charles M. Russell by a Montana art dealer
When curators at the C.M. Russell Museum were finalizing their exhibition celebrating the centennial of one of Charles M. Russell’s most famous shows, they reached an agonizing impasse with the lineup of artworks: three paintings from Russell’s original show during the 1919 Calgary Stampede wouldn’t be in the exhibition. Two works, one owned privately and the other by a museum, could not be loaned. The third piece, Black Tail—buffalo Days, had not been located.
But then Bill King, owner of Bozeman Trail Gallery, was
flipping through his June 2019 issue of Western Art Collector, which contained a lengthy preview on the museum’s exhibition, Return to Calgary: Charles M. Russell and the 1919 Victory Stampede. “It was right there in Western Art Collector that they couldn’t get three of these paintings, including one that they couldn’t find,” King says. “And there it was sitting on my wall.
So I called up the museum and lo and behold that was the one.”
The museum knew the title of the work, and even had a photograph of it, but the painting managed to float through the art market undetected. It first re-emerged in 2005 when it sold for $190,000 at the Coeur d’alene Art Auction. It popped up again in 2018 at a Hindman sale in Denver. It was estimated at $80,000 to $120,000, and
King was the lone bidder, paying $68,750. No one at the time knew the piece was from Russell’s Calgary Stampede show 99 years before. When the hammer dropped, the painting had again fallen through the cracks and into the hands of King, who had it in his Montana gallery with a price tag on it. It would only take another year, though, for the painting’s origins to come to light.
“It’s really a wonder no one ran across it before me,” King says, adding that he loaned
Black Tail—buffalo Days to the museum’s centennial celebration of Russell’s Calgary show. “I’m glad a got to play a role in the provenance of this piece. One thing I think would be fun to research now is where it went after Russell sold it in Calgary.”
Return to Calgary: Charles M. Russell and the 1919 Victory Stampede is now on view at the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana. The exhibition will continue through September 30.