Western and Wildlife Art, including Contemporary Native American Art

Provenance:

Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York.

The Art Institute of Chicago.

Sale, Christie's, New York, May 23, 1990, Lot 89, sold by the above.

Collection of Judson C. and Nancy Sue Ball, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Sale, Heritage Auctions, Dallas, May 2, 2015, Lot 77025, sold by the above.

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Literature:

A.T. Gardner, American Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1965, p. 109, another example referenced.

P.J. Broder, Bronzes of the American West, New York, 1974, pp. 241, 243, fig. 261, another example illustrated.

Graham Gallery, The Animal in Sculpture: American and European, 19th and 20th Century, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1987, pp. 70, 85, another example illustrated.

R. Butler. S.G. Lindsay, European Sculpture of the Nineteenth Century, exhibition catalogue, Washington, D.C., 2000, p. 465.

T. Tolles, ed., American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Volume II, A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1865 and 1885, New York, 2001, pp. 544-45, no. 243, another example illustrated.

L.D. Rosenfeld, A Century of American Sculpture: The Roman Bronze Works Foundry, Atglen, Pennsylvania, 2002, p. 126, fig. IV-137, another example illustrated.

A.D. Harris, Wildlife in American Art: Masterworks from the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Norman, Oklahoma, 2009, pp. 105-06, fig. 3.10, another example illustrated.

T. Tolles, T.B. Smith, The American West in Bronze, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2013, pp. 71-72, fig. 90, another example illustrated.

Lot Essay:

Largely self-taught as a sculptor, Henry Mervin Schrady relied on his studies of animal anatomy during his undergraduate education and sketching the animals at the Bronx Zoo to create his highly realistic models. Created in 1900, Bull Moose was one of Schrady's first sculptures and its anatomical accuracy is a testament to his observational skills. From the hoofs to the horns, Schrady has achieved the correct texture, musculature, and proportions of an adult male Bull Moose in this sculpture. 

Greatly impressed by his prowess, Art Dealer Theodore B. Starr bought the copyright of the model and began selling casts at his saleroom. This drew the attention of Karl Bitter, the director of sculpture for the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, leading Bitter to ask Schrady to create a life-size versions of Bull Moose and Monarch of the Plains to decorate the grounds. With the Exposition rapidly approaching, Schrady was able to create a nine-foot tall version of Bull Moose in just six weeks.