The Russell has long held sway over March in Great Falls, Montana, but the pandemic has scrambled many things over the last year, including museum schedules, which is why the C.M. Russell Museum has pushed the 2021 event from March to August. But the museum can’t pass up a chance to celebrate the birthday of Charles M. Russell, the namesake of the museum and the pride of Great Falls.
Charles M. Russell (1864-1926), A Desperate Stand, oil, 24 x 36”
The museum will mark the March 19 birthday of Russell—he was born 157 years ago, in 1864—with a sealed-bid sale featuring 14 works of art, including five from Russell himself. Proceeds from the sale will go toward programming at the museum. The sale will also be an appetizer for The Russell, the larger show and sale in August.
Bidding for the sale is now open at the museum and closes March 19. Electronic bids will not be accepted, so bidders are encouraged to visit the museum to place bids or to mail bids to the Montana museum. The bids will be opened on March 19 and winners contacted. The sales prices will remain confidential to the public.
Gerard Curtis Delano (1890-1972), The Hunter, oil, 22 x 40”“We thought a sealed-bid sale would be fun and offer us a bit more flexibility here at the museum,” says Duane Braaten, director of art and philanthropy at the C.M. Russell Museum. “We’re already accepting bids and bidders are coming into the see the works. And just so everyone knows it’s an authentic process, we have an outside accounting team witnessing the bids. Everything we make from the sale will go into our educational programming. The works come from a variety of private collections, as well as one deaccession from the Denver Art Museum.”
W.H.D. Koerner (1878-1938), Indians Attacking Stagecoach, oil, 40 x 50”
One of the major highlights from the sale is Russell’s magnificent 1898 oil A Desperate Stand, which shows a party of cowboys or trappers hiding behind a circle of horses as Native American riders encircle them. Other Russell pieces include a watercolor, an ink wash on paper, and two other oils, Peace and The Run.
Gerard Curtis Delano will be represented with five works, including the major work The Hunter, showing a Native American rowing in a canoe with a white dog. Also in the sale are works by Russell student and friend Olaf C. Seltzer, W.H.D. Koerner, Edward Borein and Eanger Irving Couse.
C.M. Russell Museum Sealed-Bid Sale
Through March 19, 2021
C.M. Russell Museum
400 13th Street North,
Great Falls, MT 59401
(406) 727-8787,
www.cmrussell.org
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