213 Corazon

SOLD
Winning Bid Undisclosed
This item SOLD at 2015 Apr 11 @ 14:45UTC-7 : PDT/MST
Category Western Americana
Auction Currency USD
Start Price NA
Estimated at 60,000.00 - 90,000.00 USD
Corazon
Artist: Russell, Charles M.Date of Birth: 1864-1926
Medium: Watercolor
Dimensions: 17 x 12 inches
Signed: Signed lower left, dated 1912 and skull

Much of 1912 saw Charlie Russell in full Michelangelo modeÑeven in the uneasy relationship he enjoyed (or, rather, didnÕt) with his patronÑas he struggled to complete his mural-sized canvas, Lewis and Clark Meeting the Flathead Indians at RossÕ Hole, in the Montana State Capitol in Helena. As Pope Julius II in sixteenth century Rome had railed against what he saw as MichelangeloÕs laziness, Montana Governor Edwin L. Norris chastised RussellÑin private, public, and in printÑfor what he saw as a failure to get on with the mural. Russell, for his part, merely felt that he was taking time to get it right. RussellÕs friend Frank Linderman wrote about visiting Russell during this period, noting his frustration. After a lengthy rant from the artist, Linderman writes, ÒFor some time he was silent, then he burst out, ÔBut I plumb had to paint. IÕd have been dead long ago if I hadnÕt painted. AnÕ thatÕs sure as hell.Õ Ò Russell seems to have spent much of the remainder of the year on the road, at the Cree Sun Dance and at the Calgary Stampede. Meeting people, making sales, pleasing clients and prospective clients: somewhere in the middle of all this, Russell got out his pen and ink and watercolors and painted CorazonÑthe heartÑa single picador, vaquero, lancer, Mexican buffalo hunter, proud New World Spanish knight. Is Russell identifying himself with the picador? Is it his heart he refers toÑa strength he relies on through adversity? Or is this corazon the heart he remembers, a wish for a simpler time, not only in his life, but in the life of the heart of the West?