An exhaustive search is now being undertaken for material related to wildlife painter Carl Rungius by the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Now several years deep in the project, the museum is presenting the first 102 entries on Rungius and his works on the museum’s website.
The project is part of the forthcoming Carl Rungius Catalogue Raisonné,which is being organized by museum curator Adam Duncan Harris, who notes that he and his team at the museum have already made huge strides in locating and recording many of Rungius’ pieces. “I started the project thinking there was somewhere around 1,000 paintings. But after digging into his career and his output every year, we have come to paintings in the number of 760 to 775. And then counting illustrations, studies, platinum prints and etchings, there is about 1,250 records.”
Carl Rungius (1869-1959), On Northern Heights, 1906, oil on canvas, 30 x 46 in. Gift of the Widener Charitable Limited Partnership, National Museum of Wildlife Art. © Estate of Carl Rungius.
Harris says they have made headway in their search by going through the United States Copyright Office, which is where artists from the 20th century would frequently register their works. Those files are public records and very accessible to researchers. Complicating the search, though, is Rungius’ inconsistent use of the office from 1900 to 1915. “The copyright records were a great place to start for a raisonné, because we knew they came directly from the artist’s hand,” Harris says. “They were his titles, his dates, and his photos—all reliable pieces of information we could build upon as we tracked each painting from its registration to where it is today.”
Copyright Office registration card for On Northern Heights, 1906. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
The first records from the project can be accessed through the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s website, www.wildlifeart.org. They are a “taste of what’s to come,” Harris adds. The full Carl Rungius Catalogue Raisonné will be released on the site in May 2027, which is the museum’s 40th anniversary and the opening of a Rungius retrospective exhibition and physical catalog. Collectors with Rungius’ works in their collection are encouraged to contact the museum to make sure their works are recorded. Information is on the museum’s website. —
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