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THBCharles M. Russell (1864 – 1926) – Weapons of the Weak
About Seller
11944 North Tracey Road
Hayden, ID 83835
United States
Coeur d’Alene Art Auction specializes in the finest classical Western and American Art representing past masters and outstanding contemporary artists. The auction principals have over 100 years of combined experience in selling fine art and have netted their clients over $325 million in the last fif...Read more
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About Auction
LiveJul 26, 2025
The 2025 Coeur d’Alene Art Auction, to be held July 26 in Reno, Nevada, will feature 354 selections of unparalleled quality in Western & American Art from historical and contemporary artists such as Charles M. Russell, Maynard Dixon, William R. Leigh, Thomas Moran, Howard Terpning, E. Martin Hennings, and more. Coeur d'Alene Art Auction info@cdaartauction.com
View Full Catalog (354)
- Lot Description
Charles M. Russell (1864 – 1926)
Weapons of the Weak
bronze
6 × 6 × 5.5 inches
inscribed: C M Russell [artist cipher] Roman Bronze Works N- Y-; written under base: #7
Russell historian Dr. Rick Stewart wrote, “In March 1921, the newly completed model of Weapons of the Weak was among six displayed at the Kanst Art Galleries on South Hill Street in Los Angeles. A critic for the Los Angeles Times praised ‘the perfection in the composition in the mother bear, who has seized her two cubs in her arms – is it arms? – to defend them from the dangerous quills of an approaching fretful porcupine. What action, and what consummate skill in the delineation of bruin life and character.’ An early photograph from Nancy Russell’s estate with her handwriting on the reverse shows the original model for the sculpture. The model still had not been cast in bronze by December, when a writer for the Rocky Mountain News, who saw it at Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel, pronounced it ‘perhaps one of his best.’ Likely the models were being hand carried to New York to be cast at Roman Bronze Works.
“The bronze version was first exhibited with six others at the Kanst Art Galleries in March 1922, where it again drew notice in the press. According to a receipt dated March 27, 1922, and signed by Nancy Russell in Los Angeles, John M. Phillips of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, purchased one copy of the bronze for $225. This bronze, the earliest documented example of the subject, is now in the collection of the Museum of Western Art in Denver. After the Kanst showing, the bronze was exhibited over the next two years in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington.
Nancy Russell described both the tension and tenderness of the moment: “The mother bear with her two cubs has climbed up on a wobbly rock to safety. The cubs are holding on to their mother as they watch a porcupine go by. One can fairly hear the mountain mother tell her children to be quiet until the little enemy with his sharp needles passes by.”
PROVENANCE
The artist, 1922
John M. Phillips, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1953
Margaret Phillips Chalfant, by descent, 1981
Robert J. Trombetta, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1989
Private collection, Wyoming
EXHIBITED
Kanst Art Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1922
LITERATURE
Rick Stewart, Charles M. Russell, Sculptor, Amon Carter Museum, 1994, pp. 226-29, example illustrated
Charles M. Russell: The Artist in His Heyday, Gerald Peters Gallery, 1995, p. 126, example illustrated
View More InformationCondition
Bronze is in good condition.
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