Robert Farrington Elwell (1874-1962) The Dying Day

Lot 90

About Seller

65 Sharp Street
Hingham, MA 02043
United States

Copley Fine Art Auctions is the world's leading American sporting art auction company. Located in Hingham, MA, Copley specializes in antique decoys and 19th- and 20th-century American, sporting, and wildlife paintings. Principal Stephen O'Brien Jr., a fourth-generation sportsman with a refined colle...Read more

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About Auction

The Sporting Sale 2016 by Copley Fine Art Auctions

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The Sporting Sale 2016

By Copley Fine Art Auctions

Jul 24, 2016 - Jul 25, 2016

Set Reminder 2016-07-24 10:00:00 2016-07-25 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : The Sporting Sale 2016 https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/copley/the-sporting-sale-2016-1579 Copley Fine Art Auctions cinnie@copleyart.com

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Lot Description

Robert Farrington Elwell (1874-1962)
The Dying Day, 1927
signed "R. Farrington Elwell" lower left
oil on canvas, 40 by 30 in.
inscribed "Carrig-Rohane Shop, Inc, R. C. Vose Boston" and numbered, possibly #4646, on back of frame
inscribed "R.F. Elwell Dover Mass" and "R. Farrington Elwell Dover, Mass" on back
inscribed with title and "Wapiti Range of North Fork of Shoshone R. Wyoming" on back

Robert Farrington Elwell was born in Boston in 1874 to a stone mason. He studied to be a civil engineer and pursued art on the side. While sketching Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show for The Boston Globe in 1892, he caught the cowboy showman's attention. William F. Cody invited Elwell out West, where he went in 1896 and ultimately became Cody's ranch manager and close friend.

Elwell managed the T E Ranch Headquarters, Buffalo Bill's ranch located on the Shoshone River, near the Wapiti Ridge in Wyoming. The National Register of Historic Places application for the ranch notes, "two or three carefully stacked piles of horns and antlers---some of them shed, some the result of winter kills and others trophies of the chase. Because these horn-pile collections must have been started as far back as the time of Buffalo Bill himself, they represent the best selections off of a great former wildlife winter range area.

A 1907 letter from Cody to Elwell documents the preparation and excitement for a fall pack trip that year and for future trips with other famous artists. Cody writes, "I'm glad you like the mountains. Schreyvogel wanted to make the trip with us this fall but I told him no, not this fall but next fall he can go. Remington, Russell the Cowboy artist, also Lenders the artist all want to go. All these artists are wild to study our fast disappearing West.

He goes on to discuss details, "Say if all goes well we will ride leave E Nov. 5. That will give us ten days shooting big game before the season closes Nov 15. We will have a very small party. Cody also suggests that Elwell gain some skills, "If any pack outfits camp at Wapiti be sure and help them pack and learn how to truss the diamond hitch - so if you and I should get off alone in the mountains you would know how to help me pack. Get an old pack saddle & practice packing on one of your horses.

Cody fondly continues, "Say what kind of a cook are you? I agree to cook if you will learn how to pack. I am going to make an all round Mountain Man of you. I hope we will spend many years together in our beloved mountains. And you will be known as Buffalo Bill's Rocky Mountain Artist.

He asks, "Did I tell you that Schreyvogel stayed with the show three weeks. Taking photographs and making studies. He is now painting the Battle of Summit Springs and I will bring it with me this fall. At the end of the three-page letter, Cody adds on, "I can hard wait for Nov the 5th. The day we leave E. with our little pack outfit. And push off into the Rockies.

Elwell's painting depicts a pack horse drenched in golden light walking along the Wapiti Ridge in Wyoming. The horse follows a man, who is hinted at with a foot, and carries a prized elk antler through the rocky landscape. Indeed, as noted in the Boston Globe, "In [Elwell's] pictures and writings he lives over again much of the life he lived with Buffalo Bill in the Wild West show, on the ranches, on the prairies, foothills and mountain trails. And you feel the thrill of his enthusiasm for the great outdoors in all the pictures.

A folder of snapshots taken by Elwell from 1898-1900 can be found in the McCracken Research Library, and the artist's work can be found in the Whitney Western Art Museum. Both the library and the museum are at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming. He died in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1962.

Literature: A.J. Philpott, "Wild West lives once more in pictures that Elwell paints, Boston Sunday Globe, April 5, 1925.
William F. Cody, "Manuscript Letter to R.F. Elwell, July 18, 1907, McCracken Research Library, Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, WY, MS6.0200.

Condition

in unrestored condition with stretcher bar marks at upper, left, and right sides, surface dirt, 1/4 by 1/2 in. area of loss upper right in sky, and significant craquelure throughout
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