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Journey Through History: Art and Artifacts from the Collection of Dr. Van Kirke & Helen Nelson

May 29 - July 26, 2014

 

The Hockaday Museum of Art is presenting A Journey Through History: Art and Artifacts from the Collection of Dr. Van Kirke & Helen Nelson. This exhibition of privately held items is on display May 29 through July 26, 2014.  

The Hockaday's exhibition, curated by Executive Director Elizabeth Moss, offers a fascinating journey through time with significant works from notable artists including Charles Marion Russell, O.C. Seltzer, Edgar S. Paxson, Charles Fritz, Fred Fellows, John Fery, Joseph Henry Sharp, Carl Rungius, Edward Borein and many others.  Items on display will include unique items such as illustrated hand-written letters and sketches by the artists who introduced the American West to the world.  Artifacts from the indigenous peoples of the West and Southwest will also be on display.

"The size and breadth of this exhibition rivals or perhaps even exceeds the grandeur of the Hockaday's own permanent collection," said Moss, "this display is a must-see event for every local and visiting person who enjoys the art of the West, Glacier National Park, Montana and the native peoples of this land." 

Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson are recognized throughout the nation as major collectors and have donated significant paintings, artifacts, and books to numerous museums, historical societies, and public schools throughout the country.  Dr. Nelson has observed the progression of several western museums, including The Russell in Great Falls.  The Nelsons have been ardent supporters of the Hockaday Museum of Art for many years, and presented the Museum with a generous gift of a C.M. Russell original of "Young Boy", which is now on permanent display at the Museum. 

The opening reception for A Journey Through History was held on Thursday, May 29, 2014. An informal conversation with Dr. Van Kirke & Helen Nelson took place at the event. Throughout the exhibit, visitors may learn more about the collection by taking one of the docent-guided tours held Thursday and Saturday mornings at 10:30 AM (included with guest admission). 

A Journey Through History was made possible by the significant support of our Premium Sponsor: Glacier Bank Directors and Friends, and by Glacier Bank.  The Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson Exhibition and Education Fund is supported by Scott & Jane Wheeler and Tabby & Bob Ivy.  Catering for the public reception is being generously provided by the Culinary Institute of Montana at Flathead Valley Community Colllege.

 

Selected images from the exhibition

 

(above: Sydney Laurence (1865-1940), Mt. McKinley, Oil on board, 11.5 x 15.5 inches. On loan from the collection of Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson. Photo credit: Digital Planet Kalispell)

 

(above: Edward Borein (1872-1945), Blackfeet War Party, Black and white wash, 11.5 x 17.5 inches. On loan from the collection of Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson. Photo credit: Digital Planet Kalispell)

 

(above: O.C. Seltzer (1877-1957), Farewell to Yesterday, Watercolor, 12.75 x 10.25 inches. On loan from the collection of Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson. Photo credit: Digital Planet Kalispell)

 

(above: Charles Marion Russell (1864-1926), Yes, The Mice People Always Make Their Nest in the Heads of the Dead Buffalo People, Ever Since the Night, Circa 1915 , Pen and ink, watercolor on paper, 8.5 x 6.38 inches. On loan from the collection of Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson. Photo credit: Digital Planet Kalispell)

 

Expanded object labels from the exhibition

 
Ace Powell (1912-1978)
Untitled - Mountain Goat
 
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 3" x 4.25" x 1.25"
Donated by: Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
The Hockaday Museum of Art
Permanent Collection, S2003.12.04
 
 
Series: Indian Trader Checks 1891 & 1899
 
Written by J.H. Sherbourne, U.S. Indian trader Endorsed on reverse side by Instant Lighter and Novelty Manufacturing Company
 
J. H. Sherbourne owned a merchandise store in Browning, MT. Sherbourne had moved to Browning in 1984 from Ponca City, Oklahoma. While in Oklahoma, he had become a close friend of Chief Joseph, the great Nez Perce leader. Sherbourne realized that the culture of the Blackfeet would disappear unless items were accepted and cared for when presented for sale or given as gifts. He placed the treasures in trunks sprinkled with tobacco to keep the vermin out.
 
Medium: Paper
Dimensions: 3.25" x 8.50"
Donated by: Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
The Hockaday Museum of Art
Permanent Collection, SC2008.01.01AB
 
 
Frank Jay Haynes (1853-1921)
Glacier National Park and Blackfeet Indians
Circa early 19th century
 
F. Jay Haynes, or the "Professor" to almost all that knew him, was a professional photographer, publisher, and entrepreneur from Minnesota who played a major role in documenting through photographs the early history of the great Northwest. He became the official photographer of the Northern Pacific Railway and of Yellowstone National Park. His photographs were widely published in articles, journals, books, and turned into stereographs and postcards in the late 19th and early 20th century.
 
Medium: Photography
Donated by: Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
Collection of 28 Glass Lantern Slides
The Hockaday Museum of Art
Permanent Collection, PH2006.12.02A-BB
 
 
Blackfeet Stabbing Knife
 
Beavertail sheath with dagger. The blade is made from a file attached to a native-made wooden handle decorated with brass wire and tacks.
 
Medium: Mixed media
Dimensions: 24.5" x 4.5" and 15" x 4.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Blackfeet Medicine Bag with Buffalo Stone
 
Blackfeet medicine rawhide bag covered with sacred red ochre earth paint. Small beaded bag for holding red ochre earth paint.
 
Medium: Rawhide, paint, beads
Dimensions: 32" x 12" x 22" and 9" x 2.5" x 4"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Buckskin Dress
Circa 1900?
 
The dress is a traditional piece moving from a strictly tribal style to a non-Indian type of garment that became popular, as the pow-wow circuit became more developed across the country. This is a two-piece garment consisting of a dress and fully beaded top.
 
The beaded dress yoke is derived from a Sioux style dress top. Some were made at Fort Peck and possibly copied by the Blackfeet people.
 
Medium: Rawhide and beads
Dimensions: 53" long, 36" wide
Donated by: Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
The Hockaday Museum of Art
Permanent Collection, SC.2012.04D
 
 
Gary Joseph Schildt (1938-)
Scalp Dancer
 
Gary Schildt was born in Helena, Montana, in 1938. As a Blackfeet descendant, Gary grew up on his family's ranch on the reservation near Browning.
 
He studied commercial art and photography at the City College of San Francisco. Schildt lives and works on the Blackfeet Reservation using the curator cottage at the Museum of the Plains Indians as a studio. In 1998, he did a series of 43 paintings of the Blackfeet Sundance now on permanent exhibit at the C. M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana. 
 
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 9.25" x 5.5" x 6"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Plateau Cradle Board
 
Floral beaded cradleboard, possibly Salish.
 
Medium: Cloth, beads and wood
Dimensions: 36.5" x 14.5" x 5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Toy Cradle, Crow
Circa 1875-1900
 
Medium: Cloth, beads and wood
Dimensions: 20" x 7" x 17"
 
Moccasin Collection
1- Southern Plains, Kiowa
circa 1875-1900
2- Central Plains, Arikara
circa 1875-1900
3- Eastern Sioux, Santee
circa 1860-1880
4- Cheyenne or Arapaho
circa 1890
5- Sioux- Child's Moccasin
circa 1890-1900
 
Medium: Hide, cloth, beads
Dimensions: Various
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
O.C. Seltzer (1877-1957)
Doctor Hitchcock Letter
 
Olaf Seltzer arrived in Great Falls, Montana in 1897, at the age of nineteen. He worked as a cowboy and then as a machinist and locomotive repairman for the Great Northern Railway, often sketching the landscape in his spare time.
 
By 1901, Seltzer was working in oils painting wildlife. By 1921, he was a full-time painter. He created over 2,500 works of art during his lifetime and was considered a transition painter between famous painters of the old west like Russell and Remington to those who painted from western myths.
 
Medium: Watercolor
Dimensions: 15" x 7.25"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirke's Comments:
It was back when I was doing a lot of advertising in the classifieds of the Great Falls Tribune.  The Hitchcock family responded to the "western art wanted" ad. Dr. Hitchcock, the physician who brought the first x-ray machine to Great Falls and perhaps the state of Montana, was familiar with Russell and with Seltzer.  This particular watercolor is an illustrated letter, which Seltzer did a lot of.  He and his friend, Charles Russell, did a lot together promoting letters between artists and collectors or friends.  In the illustration, Dr. Hitchcock has shot an elk and he is sending some meat to Olaf Seltzer.  The letter itself is a thank you note to Dr. Hitchcock from Seltzer.
 
Seltzer/Doctor Hitchcock Letter
 
 
Winold Reiss (1886-1953)
Spopeia and Mameia
Two children of the Kainahs
 
Born in Germany, Reiss grew up in the Black Forest. In Munich, he studied at the Royal Academy and the Art School. He was impressed by novels of James Fennimore Cooper and he came to the United States in 1913 with the purpose of painting Indians like those Cooper had portrayed in his books.
  
In 1919 he went West, visiting the Blackfeet Indians who made him an honorary member of the tribe, naming him "Beaver Child". Eighty-one of his portraits were published by the Great Northern Railway.
 
Print from a Great Northern Calendar
Dimensions: 9.75" x 7.25"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Dave Powell (1954-)
Indians Dancing
 
Dave Powell is the son of artists Ace Powell and Nancy McLaughlin Powell.  His father, Ace Powell, was a prolific Western artist.
 
Powell is often called upon to provide costumes and props, and to give technical advice about authenticity for films and television.  Productions he has worked on include Good Old Boys, Silverado, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams and Lonesome Dove.  While his film work is guided by his experience, his sculptures, paintings and illustrations are a result of his relationship to the land and the western culture he loves.
 
Medium: Watercolor
Dimensions: 10.5" x 13.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 

J.L. Clarke
(1881-1970)
Mountain Goat
 
In 1916, the artist was featured in his first art show. He maintained a rustic studio in East Glacier where he spent his days carving the images of Montana's wildlife. Clarke never strayed far from his Native American roots. He described himself as three quarters Blackfeet and always attended Indian Days in Browning.
 
Clarke's precise carving received numerous awards and in the 1941 edition of Who's Who in Art he was described as "the best portrayer of western wildlife in the world."
 
Medium: Block print
Dimensions: 11.50" x 11.50"
Donated by: Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
The Hockaday Museum of Art
Permanent Collection, PR2004.04.20
 
 
Carl Rungius (1869-1959)
Alaskan Wilderness
 
Carl Rungius studied art in Berlin at three academies before emmigrating to the U.S. in 1894. He established a studio in NYC the same year.  Rungius took his first sketching trip out to Wyoming and the Yellowstone National Park in 1895.  For the next 50 years he spent most of his time outdoors, painting directly from nature, traveling from Arizona to Alaska. Rungius was a visual historian and naturalist with a vast knowledge of anatomy and a distinct composition and color sense.  His specialty became Western American big game subjects, favoring grizzly bears, moose, caribou, and the occasional cowboy.
 
Medium: Etching with drypoint
Dimensions: 8" x 11"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Carl Rungius (1869-1959)
Face to Face
 
Medium: Etching with drypoint
Dimensions: 8" x 11"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Carl Rungius (1869-1959)
Cliff Dwellers
 
Medium: Etching with drypoint
Dimensions: 8" x 11"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
T. J. Hileman (1882-1945)
Chief White Dog
 
Medium: Hand-colored photography
Dimensions: 7.75" x 6.75"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Lone Wolf (1882-1970)
A Study
 
Lone Wolf was born on the Blackfeet Reservation of Montana. His given name was Hart Merriam Schultz, and he was the son of author James W. Schultz and Fine Shield Woman.  Lone Wolf's style was that of Remington and Russell. He became famous for his illustrations, painting and sculpture of western scenes that he signed with a wolf's face.  Lone Wolf set up tepee studios at the Grand Canyon and Glacier National Park at St. Mary's Lake and later in the mountains of Arizona. He lived the last fifteen years of his life in Tucson, Arizona, with his wife Naoma. He is buried on the Blackfeet Reservation.
 
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 8" x 10"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson

Roland W. Reed (1864-1934)
End of Day
 
Roland W. Reed was born in 1864 in Wisconsin.  Reed's handwritten notes reveal he was fascinated by Indians. At the age of eighteen he headed west. He worked for a few years doing portrait photography and also supplying Indian photographs to the Great Northern Railway.
 
Reed's adventures led him north, to photograph the gold rush in Alaska. A few years later he was doing studio work. Records indicate that while his studio work was highly successful, his passion was always photographing the Indians.
 
Medium: Photography
Dimensions: 15" x 19.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Ace Powell (1912-1978)?
Buckin' Bronc
 
Ace was a painter of western action scenes, wild animals, and Indian figures. Powell was credited with shaping the whole art market in Montana. He was very prolific, creating between 12,000 and 15,000 paintings and sculptures in his career.
 
Medium: Etching, print 23/50
Dimensions: 8" x 5.25"
Donated by: Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
Location: The Hockaday Museum of Art Permanent Collection, PR2004.03.03
 
 
Wolfgang Pogzeba (1936-1982)
 
Letter to Kirke
 
Pogzeba was an abstract realist painter, sculptor, printmaker, and photographer of the West.
He studied at the University of Colorado, graduating with a B.A. in Fine Arts and a Master's degree in Education. When he graduated in 1960 he was given a one-man show at the Montana Historical Society in Helena, Montana. He also exhibited at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas in 1963. After a short try at teaching, he began painting, sculpting, and photographing full time, eventually moving to Taos, New Mexico. He tragically died in an airplane crash near Taos, New Mexico in 1982.
 
Medium: Pen & ink, pastel
Dimensions: 10.75" x 8.25"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Fred Fellows (1934-)
 
Letter to Kirke
 
Fellows lived his early years in Oklahoma exposed to cowboy and Native America culture. At age nine, the family moved to California where he was exposed to sculpture and art in local museums.
 
In the 1950's, he worked on a ranch and became a cowboy. He learned to handle horses, rope cattle and build saddles. Fred's creative career began as an illustrator and he eventually became an art director for Northrop Aircraft. In 1969, he was invited to join the Cowboy Artists of America. His unique perspective captured the true pulse and rhythm of cattle, horses, and the men he portrayed.
 
Medium: Pen and ink, watercolor
Dimensions: 10.50" x 8.75"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
T. J. Hileman (1882-1945)
Chief Arrow-Top
 
Hileman graduated from the Effingham School of Photography in Chicago. In 1911, he moved to Kalispell, Montana and opened his own portrait studio. Hileman began his association with the Great Northern and Glacier National Park shortly after arriving in Montana. His work was often reproduced on postcards and in brochures, periodicals and books. In 1926, Hileman opened photo-finishing labs in Glacier Park Lodge and Many Glacier Hotel. When Hileman died in 1945, the Glacier Natural History Association purchased over one thousand of his negatives, along with 32 photographic albums containing more than 2000 prints.
 
Medium: Hand-colored photography
Dimensions: 17.5" x 9.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Edward Borein (1872-1945)
Blackfeet War Party
 
Edward Borein was born in San Leandro, California. He began sketching horses, cowboys and steers at a very early age. At seventeen, he was a working cowboy drifting through most areas of the West, from Mexico to Montana.
 
Borein went to New York to learn etching techniques. Feeling uncomfortable in New York City, in 1921 he and his wife moved to Santa Barbara and established a studio there. Watercolor became his medium of choice, although he was equally adept at pen-and-ink drawing. His etchings were of such vigorous, realistic quality that no Western artist has surpassed him in this field.
 
Medium: Black and white wash
Dimensions: 11.5" x 17.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirke's Comments:
The ink drawing on paper is another one of the Linderman treasures that was found in the lining of an old trunk that was being readied for discard.  It was a gift probably in 1915 from Borein to Linderman, got stuck in the side of a trunk on the trip home, and acquired by myself from the daughter of Frank Linderman, Norma Waller.
 
Borein/Blackfeet War Party
 
Norm Comp
The Red Blanket
 
Norm has exhibited Western and Northwest theme paintings throughout the West. He has participated in major Western Art Shows in Great Falls, Spokane, and Ellensburg.
 
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 28" x 24"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Edgar Samuel Paxson (1852-1919)
Chief Joseph
 
Edgar Paxson was on the western frontier just before Frederic Remington and Charles Russell. Paxson was a close friend of Russell; the two men became the state's most famous pioneer residents. They shared a mutual pride at being self-taught and a love of recording Montana's frontier history through their art.
 
During Paxson's career, he sought out participants in the Custer battle to paint their portraits. One of his primary sources was the Sioux Chief Gall who provided Paxson with much insight into the history and culture of the Sioux.
 
Medium: Watercolor
Dimensions: 12.5" x 8.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Kirke's Comments:
The E.S. Paxson watercolor of Chief Joseph was acquired in Butte for a nominal price.  Paxson was a resident of Butte before he moved to Missoula.  He met Chief Joseph, and so this could have been painted from life.
 
Paxson/Chief Joseph
 
 
Bud Helbig (1919-2002)
Colt
 
Helbig grew up working on a ranch in the Bitterroot Valley. His education took him to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he studied at Mills Academy and later to Chicago, where he was a student at the Academy of Art. Helbig worked in Chicago as a commercial artist for twenty years, but he never lost his love of cowboy life. Urban living was necessary at that stage in his life, but he always intended to move back to Montana and pursue a career as a Western artist. In 1969, he fulfilled his dream and three years later, he was invited to join the Cowboy Artists of America.
 
Medium: Watercolor
Dimensions: 7" x 10.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Sydney Laurence (1865-1940)
Mt. McKinley
 
Laurence studied at the Art Students League in New York, and in 1904 moved to Alaska. Living the hard life of a pioneer and prospector, he still managed to focus on his art. He moved from Valdez to Anchorage in 1915 and by 1920 was Alaska's most prominent painter.
 
Laurence painted a variety of Alaskan scenes. His paintings of sailing ships, totem poles, and Cook Inlet were highly prized. He also portrayed Native Alaskans, miners, and trappers living their solitary lives. However, his trademark became the image of Mt. McKinley from the hills above the rapids of the Tokositna River.
 
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 11.5" x 15.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirke's Comments:
Sydney Laurence has always been an artist that I liked and do appreciate the country he painted, Alaska and Mt. McKinley.  This painting of Mt. McKinley was purchased after my two boys, Greg and Doug, along with Don Scharfe of Rocky Mountain Outfitter in Kalispel and Dr. George McLane of Kalispell, decided to climb Mt. McKinley.  They trained for it and did it.  The four of them had a memorable time of it.  Doug was 17 when he completed the climb and his senior class at Flathead even named their class theme "To Climb Every Mountain".
 
Laurence/Mt. McKinley
 
 
Fred Fellows (1934-)
Portrait of Ace Powell
 
Fellows is a member of the Cowboy Artists of America. He was one of four artists honored in 2002 at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa. One of his sculptures won a Gold Medal and was purchased by the Buffalo Bill Historical Center for their permanent collection.
 
Description written on back of the painting: "Old Ace posed for me one day in the studio as we sat telling lies and drinking coffee. He is extremely difficult to paint as there is so much more to Ace than his rough exterior." F.F.
 
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 20" x 16".
Donated by: Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
Location: The Hockaday Museum of Art Permanent Collection, PA2003.08.12
 
 
Joseph H. Sharp (1859-1953)
Blackfeet in Browning, MT
 
Joseph H. Sharp was born in Bridgeport, Ohio. He saw his first Indians in Wheeling, West Virginia. He visited Sioux country in southeastern Montana just prior to 1900. A year later, President Theodore Roosevelt had his Indian Commissioners build Sharp a studio and cabin at the Crow Agency on the old Custer battlefield.
 
In 1909, Sharp acquired a permanent studio in Taos and in 1912, became a charter member of the Taos Society of Artists. He was faithful in depicting the differences between various tribes which made his work as highly prized by anthropologists as by art lovers.
 
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 7" x 9.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirke's Comments:
This little painting of tipis is on the east front, taken by Sharp when he was painting with the Blackfeet and it's about the location of East Glacier looking east.  Wonderful little painting; traded it for a couple of Ed Borein etchings about 30 years ago.
 
Sharp/Blackfeet in Browning
 
 
Haakon Ensign (1974-)
Dusty Star/Rainbow
 
Ensign is a self-taught painter and woodcarver who grew up in the Swan Valley, MT. Both of his parents were artists. Ensign's art is inspired by his interest in the land, nature and the inhabitants of the Northwest.  He has developed his creativity and skills through observation of other artists and their techniques. He feels a successful painting conveys a profound state of being that creates a dialog between the viewer and the artist.
 
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 9.5" x 11.75"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Charles Marion Russell (1864-1926)
Old Man Remakes the World
 
Illustration from Indian Why Stories
Book by Frank Linderman
 
He was born in St. Louis and became a legendary painter and sculptor of frontier activities of the American West. He was fascinated with western life from a very early age when he heard stories from his Uncle about Indian fighting. His father sent him to live in Helena, MT where he thought the harsh realities of the west would shake the romantic notions from his head. Instead, Russell fell in love with the life. He spent seven years working cowboy jobs and carried his watercolors in his bedroll. He sold his early works among the cowboys for five and ten dollars each.
 
Medium: Pen and ink
Dimensions: 6.25" x 11.75"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Kirke's Comments:
The association that Russell had with his early cowboy friends, and maybe the wild bunch group, was with Frank Linderman.  Linderman was an author writing many 
books on Montana history, poetry and Indian stories and very, very popular.  Many of his books were illustrated by Russell.  This particular pen and ink drawing is found at the beginning of the Indian lore story by the same name in Linderman's book "Indian Why Stories".
 
Russell/Old Man
 
 
Ralph Earl DeCamp (1858-1936)
Red Mountain
 
DeCamp is remembered as a Montana landscape painter, muralist, illustrator and photographer. In 1885, DeCamp was commissioned by the Northern Pacific Railroad to paint Yellowstone National Park. The scenic possibilities of this region prompted him to move to Helena, Montana the following year. Here he worked as a draftsman for the Interior Department and, with Charlie Russell, organized the Helena Sketch Club. Russell remarked on DeCamp's landscapes, "That old boy can sure paint the wettest water. You can hear the rivers ripple."
 
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 8" x 10"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Ace Powell (1912-1978)?
He Was There When I Needed Him
 
Charles Marion Russell had a big influence on Powell's development as an artist. He became acquainted with Russell at his summer home in Glacier National Park. Encouraged by Russell and Joe De Yong, he took a few private lessons but most of his skills were acquired through trial and error. Inspired by Russell's buffalo skull trademark, Powell created his own "brand" trademark and the Ace of Diamonds signature was born. Ace was a painter of western action scenes, wild animals, and Indian figures. He also loved sculpting in terra cotta, stone, and wood.
 
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 10.25" x 14"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Kirke's Comments:
This little painting was a surprise gift from Ace to Helen and me with an inscription on it that probably meant very little to most people but raised questions and we appreciated it.  Ace had a problem with alcohol and many a time we would help him home.
 
Powell/He Was There When I Needed Him
 
 
Ace Powell (1912-1978)
His Land No Longer
 
Powell was raised in Tulerosa, New Mexico and raised in Montana were he was to become a well-known painter and sculptor. Ace was a frequent visitor to the Russell studio in Great Falls and Russell's summer home in Glacier National Park. Russell's influence can be seen in Powell's landscapes, subject matter and use of color.
 
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 14.5" x 29.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirke's Comments:
I had the privilege of meeting Ace in the late 50's. Bought a lot of paintings from Ace over the years.  This particular painting, "His Land No Longer", was acquired when Ace had moved to Kalispell and was living just a block from the hospital. I visited Ace while he lived there nearly every day, sometimes acquiring six or eight paintings that he might have painted through the night.  Quite an interesting character.  In 1969, we opened Glacier Gallery and collected a lot of Powell's during that period. This is a great painting and I like the title, "His Land No Longer".
 
Powell/His Land No Longer
 
 
Charles Fritz (1955-)
Elk Country
 
Fritz was raised in Mason City, Iowa and earned a B.S. degree from Iowa State University. In 1981, he and his wife settled on a six-acre homestead near Billings, Montana. His studio is located there where he paints landscapes, figures, animals, wildlife and history. One of his biggest projects was documenting the Lewis and Clark Expedition in paint.
 
He is an active conservationist and is represented in major museums including the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, the Russell Museum, and the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.
 
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 8" x 12"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Joseph Franklin De Yong  (1894 -1975)
Iceberg Lake
 
De Yong was born in Webster Grove, Missouri and was raised in Indian Territory.  As a teenager, he learned roping from Will Rogers and earned his living as a cowboy.
 
A bout with childhood spinal meningitis left deaf. As a result, he learned and became an expert at Indian sign language.  De Yong's greatest influence was Charles Russell. He worked in Russell's studio from 1916 to 1926 in Great Falls, Montana. Charlie and Nancy treated him like a member of the family. After Russell's death in 1926, De Yong took up the charge to carry on Russell's creative legacy.
 
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 10" x 14"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirke's Comments:
This painting of Iceberg Lake was probably painted while De Yong was living with the Russells at Bullhead Lodge on Lake McDonald.  De Yong, a Blackfeet, is one of our favorite painters.  Over the years, we have acquired material by Joe De Yong depicting Glacier Park scenes.  His paintings have been instrumental in our favorite hikes.  Our kids have all been piggybacked into Iceberg Lake. We have made this hike as a family on many occasions - the girls Julie, Kathy, and Nancy, and the boys Greg and Doug. We have had many great hikes in the Park over the years. We miss the park hikes as we've gotten older.  Greg employed the kids in the family for the several years when he ran the trail crews opening the park trails up every spring.
 
De Yong/Iceberg Lake
 
 
Haakon Ensign (1975-)
Beargrass, Glacier National Park
 
Ensign is a self-taught painter and woodcarver who grew up in the Swan Valley, Montana. Both his parents were artists.  Ensign's art is inspired by his interest in the land, nature and the inhabitants of the Northwest.  He has developed his creativity and skills through observation of other artists and their techniques. He feels a successful painting conveys a profound state of being that creates a dialog between the viewer and the artist.
 
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 7.5" x 9.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
John Fery (1859-1934)
Lake St. Mary
 
John Fery was born in Hungary to an aristocratic family. Fery studied art in Vienna, Düsseldorf, and Munich. He conducted hunting expeditions to the Pacific Northwest for wealthy Europeans before settling in the United States in 1886.
 
Fery facilitated the creation of Glacier National Park through his paintings. Commissioned by the Great Northern Railroad, he painted the scenery along its route and in Glacier National Park in order to help attract people and attention to that area. Many of the more than three hundred works Fery completed hung in RR stations, hotels, and lodges that served visitors to the region.
 
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 46" x 70"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirke's Comments:
This large painting is a remnant from somewhere near the park.  It was acquired through a communication where somebody saw the name of Glacier Gallery in the paper, had a painting of Glacier Park and called me up wanting to sell it.  I said I wanted to buy it and bought it.  He shipped it to me between two pieces of 1/2 inch styrofoam.  Miraculously, it never got damaged.  Normally speaking, some insurance company would have had some problems with that.  Great painting.  
 
Fery/Lake St. Mary
 
 
John Fery (1859-1934)
Lake McDonald from Vicinity of Bullhead Lodge
 
Fery exhibited at the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893, the Everett Drama League in 1930 and 1931, and the Regional Painters of Puget Sound from 1870-1920. He died in Everett, Washington.
 
Medium: Oil on Board
Dimensions: 18.5" x 13.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirke's Comments:
The little picture of Lake McDonald was probably painted of Lake McDonald from Russell's cabin, Bullhead Lodge, or nearby.
 
Fery/Lake McDonald for Vicinity of Bullhead Lodge
 
 
 
L. A. Huffman (1854-1931)
The Round Up Breaking Camp
 
L.A. Huffman arrived in Montana Territory in 1879. He was 25 years old and had come to take a position of post photographer at Fort Keogh. It was a time when hostilities between early settlers and Native Americans were drawing to a close.  The demise of the great buffalo herds was near, clearing the way for cattle ranching. Huffman was there taking photographs. His photos of buffalo hunting, taken between 1880 - 1883, are some of the few that remain in existence. Huffman is the only photographer to be inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Center.
 
Medium: Photography
Dimensions: 9" x 10.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirke's Comments:
These are hand-tinted photographs by Huffman, a rangeland photographer.  These are scarce and have a lot of interest. But what makes these even more interesting is the fact that they walked into Glacier Gallery, which we operate, and the frames of each of the pictures are hand carved by Andy Anderson, a famous early woodcarver, who carved his initials in the frames themselves.  If you look closely you can see his name.
 
Huffman/Round Up on the Move, Horses in Rope Corral and The Round Up Breaking Camp
 
 
L. A. Huffman (1854-1931)
Round Up on the Move-1886
 
Medium: Photography
Dimensions: 9.5" x 20.75"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
L. A. Huffman (1854-1931)
Horses in Rope Corral
 
Medium: Photography
Dimensions: 10.5" x 13.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Will Crawford (1869-1944)
Charlie Russell Playing Dress-Up in Crawford's Studio
 
Crawford was affectionately known as Uncle Bill. He was a master craftsman. When he decided to build a log cabin as an art studio, he hired Jimmy Cagney for fifty cents an hour to help him build it. Jimmy and Will were to become life-long friends. They corresponded with one another throughout their lives.
 
Will's illustrations appeared in Saturday Evening Post, Colliers and Life. He was a resident of Free Acres in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey from 1918 until his death in 1944. The log cabin he built still exists today.
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Medium: Pen and ink on paper
Dimensions: 20.75" x 13.75"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirke's Comments:
This illustration by Will Crawford of Charlie Russell playing "dress up" with his friends in Crawford's studio was a gift with inscription to Nancy Russell.
 
Crawford/Russell Playing Dress Up
 
 
Edward Borein (1872-1945)
Two Steers
 
Edward Borein was born in San Leandro, California. He began sketching horses, cowboys and steers at a very early age. At seventeen was a working cowboy drifting through most areas of the West from Mexico to Montana.
 
Borein went to New York to learn etching techniques. Feeling uncomfortable in New York City, he and his wife moved to Santa Barbara in 1921 and established a studio there. Watercolor became his medium of choice, although he was equally adept at pen and ink drawing. His etchings were of such vigorous, realistic quality that no Western artist has surpassed him in this medium.
 
Medium: Pen and ink
Dimensions: 8.5" x 9"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Edward H. Bohlin (1895-1980)
Saddle
 
Born in Sweden, Bohlin apprenticed as a cowboy in Montana before making his way to Hollywood. A chance meeting with Tom Mix in a theater led Bohlin to MGM Studios where he became the 'Saddle Maker to the Stars'. 
 
Although the fancy saddles Bohlin designed for cowboy stars provided him with great publicity, his stock designs sold to private horsemen were probably his greatest source of day-to-day income.
 
Medium: Leather, silver
Dimensions: 39" x 31.5" x 21"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
C.O. Borg (1879-1947)
Navajo Horsemen
 
Carl Oscar Borg was born in Sweden. Borg worked as a seaman and studied art in London before immigrating to New York City in 1902.  He moved to California in 1903 and taught at the California Art Institute in Los Angeles. The subjects of his paintings included Hopi and Navajo Indians, cowboys, historic scenes, landscapes, seascapes and missions.  He made three trips to Sweden in the 1930s, and when war broke out in Europe he was forced to remain there for the duration of the war. After World War II ended, he returned to Santa Barbara.
 
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 17.5" x 23.25"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirke's Comments:
Walked into a dealer in Southwest, U.S. and saw this painting of Navajo horsemen.  Titled it the same.  Brought back fond memories of a tour of duty with Project Hope delivering babies in Ganado, Arizona.  The kids were the only Anglo kids in a Navajo school, and my oldest son Greg, who was 13, playing on a Navajo football team.  Fond memories.
 
Borg/Navajo Horsemen
 
 
Fred Fellows (1934-)
Glimpse of Trophy Buck
 
Fellows is a past president of the Cowboy Artists of America. He is committed to portraying authenticity in his work. His collection of Indian and western artifacts inspire and inform his work and help him achieve technical accuracy. Fellows feels that, "Paintings must be factually true to the period of history and the people portrayed, and an artist should know their subject well before making a statement about it."
 
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 15.5" x 19.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
O.C. Seltzer (1877-1957)
Farewell to Yesterday
 
Olaf Seltzer arrived in Great Falls, Montana in 1897 at the age of nineteen. He worked as a cowboy and then as a machinist and locomotive repairman for the Great Northern Railway, often sketching the landscape in his spare time.
 
By 1901, Seltzer was working in oils painting wildlife. By 1921, he was a full-time painter. He created over 2,500 works of art during his lifetime and was considered a transition painter between famous painters of the Old West like Russell and Remington to those who painted from western myths.
 
Medium: Watercolor
Dimensions: 12.75" x 10.25"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirke's Comments:
I did some advertising for art in the Daily Missoulian and one Saturday afternoon I was chopping wood while living on 781 First Avenue East North.  The person who drove into my driveway asked if this is where the Nelsons lived. I said I was Dr. Nelson and he was kind of surprised that I was cutting my own firewood, which I did all the time and dropped it down into a chute as we had a wood burning furnace for heat.  He stated that he was an antiques dealer and he had found this watercolor on one of his rounds and acquired it.  I acquired it from him that afternoon.
 
Seltzer/Farewell to Yesterday
 
 
Earl E. Heikka (1910-1941)
Taking up the Slack
 
Heikka created over two hundred pieces of art during his career. As a young boy from Great Falls, Montana, he used to model cowboys leading pack trains bringing in the bounties of a hunt, as well as scenes from Butte's deep mines.
 
Heikka was a keen observer who loved spending time in Glacier National Park, along the Sun River, and in the mountains around Great Falls. His first exhibit outside Montana was in Los Angeles in 1931. Two years later his work was shown at the Chicago Exposition. Just as his career seemed assured, he unexpectedly committed suicide on May 18, 1941.
 
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 15.25" x 49.25" x 6. 75"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Fred Fellows (1934-)
When Cold Winds Warm the Heart
 
Fellows lived his early years in Oklahoma exposed to cowboy and Native America culture. In the 1950's, he worked on a ranch and became a cowboy. He learned to handle horses, rope cattle and build saddles. Fred's creative career began as an illustrator and he eventually became an art director for Northrop Aircraft. In 1969, he was invited to join the Cowboy Artists of America. His unique perspective captured the true pulse and rhythm of cattle, horses, and the men he portrayed.
 
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 29.5" x 47.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
Kirke's Comments:
A very popular painting at a period in time when smoking was still fashionable and used as an advertisement for one of the main tobacco companies.
 
Fellows/When Cold Winds Warm The Heart 
 
 
Sioux Soft Cradle
Circa 1880
 
This type of cradle (swaddling cloth) with the beaded short hood and long cloth drop was common among the Sioux and the Cheyenne and, on a limited basis, by the Arapaho. They were used more as a wrapping or swaddling cloth but were occasionally mounted on boards at a later date.
 
Dimensions: 38" x 12" x 12"
Donated by: Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
The Hockaday Museum of Art
Permanent Collection, SC.2012.04E
 
 
Charles Marion Russell (1864-1926)
Illustrated Letter from C.M. Russell to Frank Linderman
 
Russell was born in St. Louis and became a legendary painter and sculptor of frontier activities of the American West. He was fascinated with Western life from a very early age when he heard stories from his Uncle about Indian fighting. His father sent him to live in Helena, Montana where he thought the harsh realities of the west would shake the romantic notions from his head. Instead Russell fell in love with the life. He spent seven years working cowboy jobs and carried his watercolors in his bedroll. He sold his early works among the cowboys for five and ten dollars each.
 
Medium: Watercolor, pen & ink on paper
Dimensions: 12.25" x 6"
Frontis piece from Indian Why Stories
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirke's Comments:
The illustrated letter here is one of the finest in existence and illustrates Russell's love of, and relationship with, nature.  It is featured in the book "100 Of Russell's Best Letters" by Brian Dippie as well as several other publications about Russell.  Its illustration of "Napi and His Friends" is on the title page of "Indian Why Stories" by Frank Linderman, the source of several pictures in our collection. 
 
Russell/To Friend Frank
 
 
Sioux Robe
 
Sioux robe made of indigo blue trade cloth with beaded strip and buckskin thongs attached to a center of circular beaded rosettes.
 
Medium: Cloth, beads, and buckskin
Dimensions: 8'5" x 5'
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Ace Powell (1912-1978)
All Men Want to Fly
 
Charles Marion Russell had a big influence on Powell's development as an artist. He became acquainted with Russell at Bull Head Lodge, his summer home, in Glacier National Park. Encouraged by Russell and Joe De Yong, he took a few private lessons but most of his skills were acquired through trial and error. Inspired by Russell's buffalo skull trademark Powell created his own "brand" trademark and the 'Ace of Diamonds' signature was born. Ace was a painter of western action scenes, wild animals, and Indian figures. He also loved sculpting in terra cotta, stone, and wood.
 
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 21.5" x 29.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Sioux Vest
 
The vest is beaded on a buckskin base with pictographic beadwork of mounted warriors and American flags.
 
Medium: Buckskin, beads
Dimensions: 20.75" x 22"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Blackfeet Robe
 
The Blackfeet robe is made of a Hudson Bay point blanket with a large beaded strip and white chunks of dried fungus used for burning incense. Weasel skin drops are attached to the center of the circular rosettes.
 
Medium: Wool, beads, fungus, and
weasel skin
Dimensions: 6'2" x 5'7"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
O.C. Seltzer (1877-1957)
Indian War Party
 
Seltzer was a native of Copenhagen, Denmark. He moved to Great Falls, Montana where he worked for the Great Northern Railroad. Seltzer was a contemporary of Charlie Russell and Frederic Remington. His works show Russell's influence yet he developed his own style and decisive line.
 
Medium: Watercolor on paper
Dimensions: 14.5" x 22"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirke's Comments:
This is another instance of serendipity.  I am sitting in my office in the Buffalo Building, which has since burned down, on main street in Kalispell, when I got a telephone call from the Historical Society in Helena that this gentleman was in the museum, had a watercolor by O.C. Seltzer and wanted to sell it.  The museum had no funds for acquisition.  It really wasn't expensive, but it was one of the finest watercolors that he had ever seen by Seltzer.  I told the director of the museum that if the guy wanted to drive it to Kalispell I would buy it on his strength.  He drove it to Kalispell and came into the office with an absolutely gorgeous watercolor that had a purchase price on it of $400.00.
 
Seltzer/Indian War Party
 
 
Rudolph F. Kurz (1818-1871)
Burial Horse
 
Kurz was a Swiss painter and writer who came to America in order to paint Native Americans. He is mostly known for his journals. He went into the field to study western and wilderness subject matter. After struggling for four years to work on his art and to pay bills in America, Kurz signed on as a clerk with the American Fur Company.
 
Art critics did not respond favorably to his work. Kurz was never able to achieve the status of a major artist. His legacy remains his American journal and sketches.
 
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 15.5" x 19.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Edgar Samuel Paxson (1852-1919)
The Signal
 
Paxson worked with his father as a sign painter and decorator. In 1877, the year after Custer's battle, he traveled to Montana.
 
He worked at odd jobs in Montana; on a cattle ranch, as a meat hunter, a dispatch rider, a stagecoach driver, and as a scout in the Nez Perce War (1877-78).
 
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 40" x 28"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirke's Comments:
Great painting found in a storage barn in Oklahoma City and traded by myself 55-60 years ago for a Phillip Goodwin painting about the same size and $1500.  It's a great painting. Paxson at his best.
 
Kirke's Comments:
A watercolor of Sitting Bull, a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Sam Rosenthal.   Sam Rosenthal was very instrumental in whetting my appetite in the collection of Western Americana.
 
Paxson/Sitting Bull
 
 
Edgar Samuel Paxson (1852-1919)
Sitting Bull
 
Edgar Paxson was on the western frontier just before Frederic Remington and Charles Russell. Paxson was a close friend of Russell; the two men became Montana's most famous pioneer residents.  They shared a mutual pride at being self-taught and a love of recording Montana's frontier history through their art.
 
During Paxson's career, he sought out participants in the Custer battle to paint their portraits. One of his primary sources was the Sioux Chief Gall, who provided Paxson with much insight into the history and culture of the Sioux.
 
Medium: Watercolor
Dimensions: 22" x 14"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Gary Joseph Schildt (1938-)
Meadowlark's Song
 
Gary Schildt was born in Helena, Montana in 1938.  As a Blackfeet descendant, Gary grew up on his family's ranch on the Reservation near Browning.
 
He studied commercial art and photography at the City College of San Francisco. Schildt lives and works upon the Blackfeet Reservation using the curator cottage at the Museum of the Plains Indians as a studio. In 1998, he did a series of 43 paintings of the Blackfeet Sundance now on permanent exhibit at the C. M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana. 
 
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 21" x 33.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Charles Graham (1852-1911)
Cheyenne Camp
 
Charles Graham was born in Rock Island, Illinois. He was a nomadic, self-taught sketch artist for Harper's Weekly. His drawings were in nearly every issue of Harper's from 1880 to 1992.  From 1880 to 1889 he produced 120 images of the American West. He made a winter trip to Yellowstone in 1887 with photographer Frank J. Haynes. Graham was no idealist. He scorned views of the grandeur of nature, the march of progress and the taming of the wilderness. After leaving Harper's, Graham worked as a freelance illustrator and after 1900, he worked as an oil painter.
 
Medium: Watercolor
Dimensions: 20" x 11.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Charles Marion Russell (1864-1926)
Young Boy
 
Russell's eye for detail, and his innate sense of color are legendary. The light before a Montana sunset often takes on a reddish purple hue. The color is now often called "Charlie Russell purple". The genuine perspective of his work was achieved because he was actually there and saw the
settling of the west. Through his experience, he was able to give us an authentic record of that historic time.
 
Medium: Oil on wood panel
Dimensions: 11" x 8.50"
Donated by: Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
The Hockaday Museum of Art
Permanent Collection, PA2006.12.18
 
Kirke's Comments:
"Young Boy" is one of two oil paintings that I have owned by Russell.  One sold many years ago and the other one that you see here, was gifted by Helen and me to the Hockaday Museum several years ago.  This was an acquisition from Dr. E.D. Hitchcock.  Dr. Hitchcock was the private physician of Young Boy and cared for him in his later life.  Russell painted this portrait of Young Boy in his earlier years and gave it to Young Boy.  Young Boy later gave the portrait to Dr. Hitchcock as a gift for his care.  I had the opportunity to purchase it from Dr. Hitchcock along with several Seltzer watercolors. It's a wonderful little portrait, and we miss it.
 
Russell/Young Boy

Paul Dyck (1917-2006)
After the Hunt
 
Dyck was the adopted son of two noted Indian leaders: One Elk, a veteran of Chief Sitting Bull's band, and Lone Wolf, the famed Blackfeet artist. Paul Dyck hd been given the name Wi-'hun'keE'ta'pa (Rainbow Hand) by the Sioux people. He lived among the Sioux, Crow, Cheyenne, Blackfeet, Otoe, Pawnee, Kiowa, Comanche, Zuni, Navajo, Hopi and Apache.
 
He believed, "The American Indian heritage and its treasure of art and way of life, should be an inspiration forever in relationship to the American dream."
 
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 24" x 48"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirk's Comments:
Paul Dyck had one of the great Native American bead and weapons collections.  I traded to him a war shirt that is now in the Whitney Museum in Cody, Wyoming.
 
Dyck/The End Of The Hunt
 
 
Joseph H. Sharp (1859-1953)
Plenticoup (Crow Chief)
 
Sharp was born in Bridgeport, Ohio. He saw his first Indians in Wheeling, West Virginia. He visited Sioux country in southeastern Montana just prior to 1900. A year later, President Theodore Roosevelt had his Indian Commissioners build Sharp a studio and cabin at the Crow Agency on the old Custer battlefield.
 
In 1909, Sharp acquired a permanent studio in Taos. In 1912, he became a charter member of the Taos Society of Artists. He was faithful in depicting the differences between various tribes that made his work as highly prized by anthropologists as by art lovers.
 
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 9.5" x 6.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirke's Comments:
Acquired this Joseph Henry Sharp painting of an Indian, a Crow, on July 3, 1971. I purchased it from Kibby Couse from whom I bought many paintings in the 70s to early 80s.  The painting had been given to Couse by J.H. Sharp.
 
Sharp/Plenticoup
 
Kirke's Comments:
Welded steel sculpture from a good friend with whom I served on the first Montana Arts Council.  
 
Pomeroy/sculpture
 
 
Henry Farny (1814-1916)
Sitting Bull
 
Farny was born in Alsace, France. His parents fled to America as political refugees. They settled in Pennsylvania near a Seneca Indian camp. Farny's early encounters with the Seneca led to a lifelong interest in Native Americans.
 
Farny made many trips to the West, including a journey to Montana to attend ceremonies of the completed Northern Pacific railroad. He was adopted by a tribe of Sioux Indians and named Long Boots. Farny's paintings met with almost instant acclaim. His trips to Indian encampments resulted in the storytelling type of art that was so typical of the times.
 
Medium: Wash drawing
Dimensions: 9" x 6.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Charles Marion Russell (1864-1926)
Yes, The Mice People Always Make Their Nest in the Heads of the Dead Buffalo People, Ever Since the Night
Circa 1915
 
Russell was fascinated with western life from a very early age when he heard stories from his Uncle about Indian fighting. His father sent him to live in Helena, Montana where he thought the harsh realities would shake the romantic notions from his head. Instead Russell fell in love the life. He spent seven years working cowboy jobs and carried his watercolors in his bedroll. He sold his early works among the cowboys for five and ten dollars each.
 
Medium: Pen and ink, watercolor on paper
Dimensions: 8.5" x 6.38"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirk's Comments:
This Charles Russell watercolor is the frontispiece of "Indian Why Stories" by Frank Linderman.  It was acquired in Santa Barbara, California from Verne Linderman, a daughter of Frank Linderman, through an ad I had placed in the Santa Barbara daily newspaper in the 1950s and I was in training at L.A. County Hospital with no money.  It is one of seven Russell pictures that I secured at that time through the hospital credit union, financing my used Borgward station wagon.  I only regret that I had not had the courage to acquire some of the other watercolors that the family had, but have managed to keep all of those that I did acquire. 
 
Russell/Napi and the Mice People 
 
 
Wolfgang Pogzeba (1936-1982)
Buffalo
 
Pogzeba was an abstract realist painter, sculptor, printmaker, and photographer of the West. He studied at the University of Colorado graduating with a B.A. in Fine Arts and a Master's degree in Education. When he graduated in 1960, he was given a one-man show at the Montana Historical Society in Helena, Montana. He also exhibited at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas in 1963. After a short try at teaching, he began painting, sculpting, and photographing full time, eventually moving to Taos, New Mexico. He tragically died in an airplane crash near Taos, New Mexico in 1982.
 
Medium: Watercolor
Dimensions: 10.5" x 22"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Lyndon Pomeroy (1925-)
The Wrangler
 
The sculptor was born in Sidney, Montana. Pomeroy has captured the spirit of Westerners for 40-plus years in his renditions of pioneers, military men, explorers, working-class heroes, cowboys and critters. He is fascinated with the process of welding and shaping a work of art. Pomeroy has been widely commissioned to do pieces for private indoor settings and massive outdoor studies. His work can be found in museum and private collections around the world.
 
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 23.5" x 9.5" x 11.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Pima Basket
 
Medium: Grass, reed
Dimensions: 18.5" x 18.5" x 5"
On loan from the collection of Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Elizabeth Naranjo
 
 
Santa Clara Pueblo
Vessel
 
Elizabeth Naranjo was born in 1929, the daughter of Pablita and Jose Chavarria of Santa Clara Pueblo. Santa Clara Pueblo is famous for producing hand-crafted pottery, specifically blackware and redware with deep engravings. The Pueblo is a member of the eight Northern Pueblos, and the people are from the Tewa ethnic group of Native Americans.
 
Naranjo is an exceptional potter who has won many awards for her work. Her sisters, Clara Shije, Reycita Naranjo, Florence Browning and Mary Singer are also potters of distinction.  She has produced many beautiful blackware pottery vessels over the years. Every pottery piece she has made has been exceptional and illustrates her absolute attention to detail.
 
Medium: Ceramic
Dimensions: 4.5" x 5" x 5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Carl Oscar Borg (1879-1947)
Canyon De Chelle
 
Carl Oscar Borg was born in Sweden. Borg worked as a seaman and studied art in London before immigrating to New York City in 1902. He moved to California in 1903 and taught at the California Art Institute in Los Angeles. The subjects of his paintings included Hopi and Navajo Indians, cowboys, historic scenes, landscapes, seascapes and missions.  He made three trips to Sweden in the 1930s, and when war broke out in Europe he was forced to remain there for the duration of the war. After World War II ended, he returned to Santa Barbara.
 
Medium: Gouache on board
Dimensions: 7" x 5"
On loan from the collection of Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson, Doug Nelson - ISO art
 
Kirke's Comments:
Acquired this painting, like many others, through public auction.  This particular painting was acquired at a Sotheby's sale, a great little painting.
 
 
Fred Fellows (1934-)
Untitled Skull
 
Fellows lived his early years in Oklahoma exposed to cowboy and Native America culture. In the 1950s he worked on a ranch and became a cowboy. He learned to handle horses, rope cattle and build saddles. Fred's creative career began as an illustrator and he eventually became an art director for Northrop Aircraft. In 1969, he was invited to join the Cowboy Artists of America. His unique perspective captured the true pulse and rhythm of cattle, horses, and the men he portrayed.
 
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 5.0" x 5.50" x 2.0"
Donated by: Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
The Hockaday Museum of Art
Permanent Collection, S2003.12.10
 
 
Rug Artifact
 
Medium: Wool, string, wood
Dimensions: 24" x 19"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Grace Carpenter Hudson (1865-1937)
The Mystic Symbol (Pomo Indians)
 
Hudson was born in Potter Valley, California. She studied at the Mark Hopkins Institute in San Francisco. She also was an illustrator for Sunset, Cosmopolitan, and Western Field magazines.
 
In 1890, she married John Hudson who was an ethnologist and a researcher on the language and art of the Pomo Indians. Immersed in their culture, Hudson began to specialize in painting the Indian children with whom she spent so much time with. These are her best known works.
 
Medium: Oils on canvas
Dimensions: 30" x 30"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
Kirke's Comments:
This is a large painting by Grace Carpenter Hudson, an artist who lived with the Pomo Indians in Northern California.  She did something that is greatly admired by many artists but done by few.  She chronicled and recorded every painting, or nearly every painting, that she painted by a picture and a number documenting the painting on the reverse side.  However she painted, her paintings have withstood the test of time and are generally, when found, in excellent condition with a number recorded and access to a recording of the painting.  A great artist.
 
Hudson/The Mystic Symbol
 
Maynard Dixon (1875-1946)
Indian Portrait
 
Maynard Dixon was a largely self-taught artist. Dixon decided to send his sketchbook to Frederic Remington, who encouraged Dixon to pursue his artistic talent.
 
Dixon only visited Montana twice in 1909 and 1917. However, his love and respect for the Native Americans was the inspiration for the majority his paintings. Dixon's canvases give insight into the life of the Northern Plains Indians. An Indian thunderbird was used often as a logo in his work.
 
Medium: Pastel on paper
Dimensions: 13" x 9.5"
On loan from the collection of Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson, Doug Nelson - ISO art
 
Kirke's Comments:
This is a painting that was purchased at auction two years ago where the person putting together the catalog could not see a signature, but indeed a signature and date 1900 was visible when the glass, common non-glare, was removed revealing a wonderful signed Dixon of a young man, an Indian portrait.
 
Dixon/Indian Portrait
 
 
Grace Carpenter Hudson (1865-1937)
Petie
Catalogue #302, 1906
 
In 1904, Hudson was commissioned by the Field Museum to paint portraits of the Pawnee Indians including a special series of the Indian chiefs of Oklahoma. She returned to Ukiah where she lived and painted actively until her death at the age of seventy-two.
 
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 10" x 9"
On loan from the collection of Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
C.O. Borg (1879-1947)
Grand Canyon
 
Carl Oscar Borg was born in Sweden. Borg worked as a seaman and studied art in London before emmigrating to New York City in 1902.  He moved to California in 1903 and taught at the California Art Institute in Los Angeles. The subjects of his paintings included Hopi and Navajo Indians, cowboys, historic scenes, landscapes, seascapes and missions.  He made three trips to Sweden in the 1930s and when war broke out in Europe he was forced to remain there for the duration of the war.  After World War II ended, he returned to Santa Barbara.
 
Medium: Oil on board
Dimensions: 7" x 9"
On loan from the collection of Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson, Doug Nelson - ISO art
 
 
William Pennington (1874-1940)
Navajo
 
Pennington worked in Texas where he had his own photography studio. In 1902, Pennington met Lisle Updike, another photographer who had been photographing Western landscapes and indigenous peoples for several years. From then on, the two worked and travelled together.
 
In 1917, Will Evans, a trader in New Mexico, contacted Pennington and Updike to photograph the Navajo people in the area. Pennington's photographs depict a moment of history in the Southwest and serve to preserve Indian culture.
 
Medium: Photography
Dimensions: 9.75" x 7.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Laura Gilpin (1891-1979)
Navajo Woman
 
Gilpin is one of the foremost American photographers of the Southwest. In 1918, after studying with Clarence White in New York, Gilpin returned to her native Colorado Springs to begin her professional photography career. Between 1926 and 1930, she taught photography at the Chappell School of Art in Denver and at Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in 1940-1941. 
 
Medium: Photography
Dimensions: 19.25" x 15.25"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Laura Gilpin (1891-1979)
Navajo Woman and Child
 
During World War II in 1942, Gilpin worked in Kansas as a public relations photographer.
After the war, she moved to New Mexico and started her life-long project of documenting the life and environment of the Native Americans in the region.  It was then she adopted a hard-edged style to document the Southwestern landscape and the Pueblo and Navaho Indians. Her images depict American Indians with simplicity and grace, living in an intimate relationship with the land. Gilpin's photographs are unmatched as a visual record of the profound changes and deep continuities in twentieth-century American Indian life.
 
Medium: Photography
Dimensions: 13.50" x 10.50"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
James Boren (1921-1990)
Home - Acoma
 
Boren was born in Waxahatchie, Texas.  He was a painter of western scenes and member of the Cowboy Artists of America. His career as an artist was interrupted by four years of military service during World War II.  After the war, he earned his M.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute.  In 1959, he began selling cowboy paintings. He was named Texas State Artist of the Year and, as a member of the Cowboy Artists of America, won the gold medal in watercolor seven times.  His paintings consistently reflected his belief that the American cowboy had the star role in the drama of the West - the most beautiful country anywhere.
 
Medium: Watercolor
Dimensions: 14" x 21"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Eagle Feather Bonnet
Circa 1900-1920
 
This style of bonnet is usually associated with central plains tribes-Sioux; Cheyenne, and Crow. However, this one has Blackfeet characteristics. This bonnet became popular among the Blackfeet due to tourism that came with the railroad. The beaded band on the front of the bonnet is done in typical Blackfeet style and technique. The white band on the red wool "firecrackers" at the base of each feather are pericardium (heart case), probably elk or deer and used extensively by Blackfeet and their neighbors Assiniboine and Gros Ventre, on feathers and weasel skins, drops on shirts and leggings.
 
Medium: Fiber, bone, feathers, beads,
Dimensions: 23" x 29" x 25"
Donated by: Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
The Hockaday Museum of Art
Permanent Collection, SC.2012.05F
 
 
Sioux Warrior's Shirt
Circa 1875
 
Shirts of this type are often called "war shirts" but might be more correctly termed an "honoring shirt", showing the wearer was a respected man among his people. The right to wear such a garment could only come after the owner had proved his bravery and generosity in protecting and providing for his tribe.
 
Medium: Deer or antelope hides, beads, hair locks, painted decoration
Dimensions: 36" x 60"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Charles Fritz (1955-)
Flying Clouds Over Mt. Reynolds
 
Fritz has received the C.M. Russell Auction Best in Show Award three times. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Denver Art Museum, the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Wyoming, the Macnider Museum in Iowa, and the Rahr-West Museum in Wisconsin.
 
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 35.25" x 42.25"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke
and Helen Nelson
 
 
Ace Powell (1912-1978)
Two Trails to God
 
Charles Marion Russell had a big influence on Powell's development as an artist. He became acquainted with Russell at Bull Head Lodge, Russell's summer home, in Glacier National Park. Encouraged by Russell and Joe De Yong, he took a few private lessons, but most of his skills were acquired through trial and error. Inspired by Russell's buffalo skull trademark, Powell created his own "brand" trademark, the 'Ace of Diamonds' signature was born. Ace was a painter of western action scenes, wild animals, and Indian figures. He also loved sculpting in terra cotta, stone, and wood.
 
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 10.25" x 8" x 7"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Fred Fellows (1934-)
Spirit of the Plains
 
Fellows lived his early years in Oklahoma exposed to cowboy and Native America culture. In the 1950's, he worked on a ranch and became a cowboy. He learned to handle horses, rope cattle and build saddles. Fred's creative career began as an illustrator and he eventually became an art director for Northrop Aircraft. In 1969, he was invited to join the Cowboy Artists of America. His unique perspective captured the true pulse and rhythm of cattle, horses, and the men he portrayed.
 
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 27" x 8.5" x 6.75
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Earl E. Heikka
Bronc to Breakfast
 
Born in Belt, Montana, Heikka was a student of Charlie Russell's work. A hunter, trapper, and taxidermist, he began modeling animals at the age of nine and at eighteen was creating masterpieces. His models are considered to be among the best examples of western works of art.
 
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 19" x 13" x 7.5"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Fred Fellows (1934-)
No Easy Way Out
 
In the 1950s, Fellows worked on a ranch and became a cowboy. He learned to handle horses, rope cattle and build saddles. Fred's creative career began as an illustrator and he eventually became an art director for Northrop Aircraft. When money became tight, he often traded his paintings for groceries and doctor bills. In 1969, he was invited to join the Cowboy Artists of America. His unique perspective captured the true pulse and rhythm of cattle, horses, and the men he portrayed. Fellows never looked back. He has been creating art full time ever since.
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 36" x 23.5" x 14"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Sioux Warrior's Shirt
Circa 1875
 
Shirts of this type are often called "war shirts" but might be more correctly termed an "honoring shirt", showing the wearer was a respected man among his people. The right to wear such a garment could only come after the owner had proved his bravery and generosity in protecting and providing for his tribe.
 
Medium: Deer or antelope hides, beads, hair locks, painted decoration
Dimensions: 36" x 60"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Eagle Feather Bonnet
Circa 1900-1920
 
This style of bonnet is usually associated with central plains tribes-Sioux; Cheyenne, and Crow. However, this one has Blackfeet characteristics. This bonnet became popular among the Blackfeet due to tourism that came with the railroad. The beaded band on the front of the bonnet is done in typical Blackfeet style and technique. The white band on the red wool "firecrackers" at the base of each feather are pericardium (heart case), probably elk or deer and used extensively by Blackfeet and their neighbors Assiniboine and Gros Ventre, on feathers and weasel skins, drops on shirts and leggings.
 
Medium: Fiber, bone, feathers, beads,
Dimensions: 23" x 29" x 25"
Donated by: Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
The Hockaday Museum of Art
Permanent Collection, SC.2012.05F
 
 
Buckskin Dress
Circa 1900?
 
The dress is a traditional piece moving from a strictly tribal style to a non-Indian type of garment that became popular, as the
pow-wow circuit became more developed across the country. This is a two-piece garment consisting of a dress and fully beaded top.
 
The beaded dress yoke is derived from a Sioux style dress top. Some were made at Fort Peck and possibly copied by the Blackfeet people.
 
Medium: Rawhide and beads
Dimensions: 53" long, 36" wide
Donated by: Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
The Hockaday Museum of Art
Permanent Collection, SC.2012.04D
 
 
Gary Joseph Schildt (1938-)
Scalp Dancer
 
Gary Schildt was born in Helena, Montana, in 1938. As a Blackfeet descendant, Gary grew up on his family's ranch on the reservation near Browning.
 
He studied commercial art and photography at the City College of San Francisco. Schildt lives and works on the Blackfeet Reservation using the curator cottage at the Museum of the Plains Indians as a studio. In 1998, he did a series of 43 paintings of the Blackfeet Sundance now on permanent exhibit at the C. M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana. 
 
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 9.25" x 5.5" x 6"
On loan from the collection of
Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
 
 
Frank Jay Haynes (1853-1921)
Glacier National Park and Blackfeet Indians
Circa early 19th century
 
F. Jay Haynes, or the "Professor" to almost all that knew him, was a professional photographer, publisher, and entrepreneur from Minnesota who played a major role in documenting through photographs the early history of the great Northwest. He became the official photographer of the Northern Pacific Railway and of Yellowstone National Park. His photographs were widely published in articles, journals, books, and turned into stereographs and postcards in the late 19th and early 20th century.
 
Medium: Photography
Donated by: Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
Collection of 28 Glass Lantern Slides
The Hockaday Museum of Art
Permanent Collection, PH2006.12.02A-BB
 
 
Ace Powell (1912-1978)
Untitled - Mountain Goat
 
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 3" x 4.25" x 1.25"
Donated by: Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
The Hockaday Museum of Art
Permanent Collection, S2003.12.04
 
 
Series: Indian Trader Checks 1891 & 1899
 
Written by J.H. Sherbourne, U.S. Indian trader Endorsed on reverse side by Instant Lighter and Novelty Manufacturing Company
 
J. H. Sherbourne owned a merchandise store in Browning, MT. Sherbourne had moved to Browning in 1984 from Ponca City, Oklahoma. While in Oklahoma, he had become a close friend of Chief Joseph, the great Nez Perce leader. Sherbourne realized that the culture of the Blackfeet would disappear unless items were accepted and cared for when presented for sale or given as gifts. He placed the treasures in trunks sprinkled with tobacco to keep the vermin out.
 
Medium: Paper
Dimensions: 3.25" x 8.50"
Donated by: Dr. Van Kirke and Helen Nelson
The Hockaday Museum of Art
Permanent Collection, SC2008.01.01AB
 

 

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