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Lot Essay
According to Mrs. Frederic Renner, "Edgar I. Holland, the manager of the Great Falls Water, Power and Townsite Company, was a neighbor of the Russells and close friend of the artist. The family, consisting of Father, Mother Virginia and daughter, Marion, whom Russell named 'Little Sunshine' had visited with Charles and Nancy at their Bull Head Lodge on Lake MacDonald in the summer of 1908." (Unpublished letter dated 10 December 2006)
Wolf with Bone, also titled Lone Wolf, was first modeled circa 1901 and later cast in bronze circa 1927-28, with approximately eight plasters known to exist. "Russell's interest in this subject may have stemmed in part from contemporary accounts of wily and elusive renegade wolves that bedeviled stockmen at the turn of the century. Ernest Thompson Seton, a nature writer whom Russell eventually met during his first visit to New York in 1904, wrote highly popular stories on two such outlaws--Lobo of Currumpaw and the Winnipeg Wolf--that stirred up controversy because the writer ascribed certain human qualities to his embattled heroes." In the present work, Russell has clearly chosen to depict his subject in a natural yet sympathetic pose, underscoring the broader theme in his art of honoring the disappearing liveliehood of the West. "According to the famed naturalist William Hornaday: 'In Montana the number of wolves has so greatly diminished that in the course of a month in the saddle in 1901, in wild country, no Gray Wolves were seen, and only four coyotes.'" (R. Stewart, Charles M. Russell: Sculptor, Fort Worth, Texas, pp. 345-46)
Wolf with Bone, also titled Lone Wolf, was first modeled circa 1901 and later cast in bronze circa 1927-28, with approximately eight plasters known to exist. "Russell's interest in this subject may have stemmed in part from contemporary accounts of wily and elusive renegade wolves that bedeviled stockmen at the turn of the century. Ernest Thompson Seton, a nature writer whom Russell eventually met during his first visit to New York in 1904, wrote highly popular stories on two such outlaws--Lobo of Currumpaw and the Winnipeg Wolf--that stirred up controversy because the writer ascribed certain human qualities to his embattled heroes." In the present work, Russell has clearly chosen to depict his subject in a natural yet sympathetic pose, underscoring the broader theme in his art of honoring the disappearing liveliehood of the West. "According to the famed naturalist William Hornaday: 'In Montana the number of wolves has so greatly diminished that in the course of a month in the saddle in 1901, in wild country, no Gray Wolves were seen, and only four coyotes.'" (R. Stewart, Charles M. Russell: Sculptor, Fort Worth, Texas, pp. 345-46)