CM Russell Framed Print

CHARLES M. RUSSELL WESTERN PRINT - MOUNTED WAR PARTY SCENE IN AN ORNATE CARVED AND GILT WOOD FRAME A framed reproduction after the Montana cowboy artist Charles M. Russell, showing a mounted war party riding down a sunlit sandy slope, the lead rider carrying a painted hide shield and lance, riders behind him strung out across the ridge with lances upright, sage and greasewood scattered across the ground and long shadows thrown to the right. The image is worked in Russell's warm watercolor palette of ochre, buff, sienna, and pale blue, and carries his familiar signature with the buffalo skull device in the lower left corner. It is presented in a wide antique-style wood frame, a carved outer molding with a beaded and leaf-carved band in a weathered gray-brown wash over gold, stepping down through a burnished gilt panel to a linen liner at the image. This is a good-looking, decorative western wall piece that would hang well in a den, lodge, office, or ranch house, and it pairs naturally with the three Charles M. Russell reference books and the western art and Angus books offered elsewhere in this sale. Bidders should note this is a reproduction print, not an original painting, and that the mat and upper image area carry noticeable brown water staining and tide lines that are visible in the photographs. Sold as one framed print. Description Framed reproduction print after a Charles M. Russell watercolor, western subject, a mounted war party of six or more riders advancing over open sandy ground with lances, a painted round shield, and appaloosa and pinto horses. Signature reads CM Russell in the lower left of the image with the artist's buffalo skull device preceding it, reproduced as part of the printed image. No printed title, edition number, publisher line, plate mark, or paper watermark is visible in these photographs, and no gallery label, stamp, or certificate is shown, so no specific title, publisher, date, or edition is claimed. A faint stamped or printed marking appears along the right outer edge of the frame back but is illegible in the photographs. Image is mounted with a narrow natural linen fabric liner or mat surround inside a slim gilt inner molding. Frame is a wide stepped wood molding, roughly three inches across, with a carved outer band of alternating raised dots and leaf sprigs, finished in a gray-brown antiqued wash with gold showing through, and a burnished gold-toned flat panel on the inner slope. Verso is open bare pine and softwood with the mounted image held by nails and small metal points, backed by heavy board and canvas-textured stock. No hanging wire, D-rings, or sawtooth hanger is visible in the back photograph, so the buyer should plan on adding hanging hardware. Overall outside frame dimensions measure approximately 22 inches on the long side by roughly 18 to 19 inches on the short side per the tape-measure photographs, with the visible image area running roughly 13 to 14 inches on the long side. In both measuring photographs the tape hook is laid flat on the face of the frame rather than hooked over its edge, and the piece is lying on carpet at an angle to the camera, so every figure here is a close estimate rather than a measurement. Bidders should verify all dimensions from the photographs. Whether the image is glazed under glass or acrylic is not clear from these photographs; there is some surface reflection but no glass edge is confirmed, so buyers should assume the surface may be unprotected and handle it accordingly. Attribution note Charles Marion Russell, 1864 to 1926, worked as a wrangler and night herder in Montana before becoming the best known painter of the northern plains cattle range and of Plains Indian life, and his oils and watercolors have been reproduced continuously in prints, books, and calendars since the early twentieth century. His work is the subject of the three books offered separately in this sale, and the C.M. Russell Museum in Helena and Great Falls, Montana, along with the Charles M. Russell Center at the University of Oklahoma, remain the principal institutional homes for study of his art. Nothing here identifies the specific painting reproduced, the printer, or the date of printing, and there is no basis in these photographs for calling this a limited edition or an original work. The identification of the artist rests on the reproduced signature and skull device visible in the image and is offered as the consignor's photo-based opinion, not guaranteed. Bid on the item as pictured. Condition Used vintage framed wall art in fair to good decorative condition, sold as-is. The linen liner and the upper portion of the image show clear brown water staining, tide lines, and foxing, heaviest across the top edge and running down into the upper left corner and along the left liner, plainly visible in the close-up photographs. A brown stain also surrounds the signature area in the lower left corner of the image. The back photograph shows a la