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“On the Ramparts” by Dan Metz, oil on canvas, 30 inches by 40 inches

It’s not the color or the composition that captivates. It’s not the light or the brushwork that matters most.

It’s the anticipation of that next emerald pool a bend upriver, the hush before a covey flushes on a cool November morning. It’s the memory of a moment spent with a friend after a long hunt. It’s the boyhood wonderment that never falls short at the sight of a new stream.

For artists who excel in the field of Western sporting art, it’s all about finding those connections and bringing them to life. Many of the best find their inspiration right here in Montana.

Dan Metz, whose mountain goat painting “On the Ramparts” hangs in Tierney Fine Art in downtown Bozeman, began visiting Montana in the 1970s. He returns each fall to gather ideas for his work.

“I decided from the start that if I was going to paint these animals I needed to have firsthand experience with wild animals,” Metz said. “If you want to paint big game, Montana is it.”

Sporting art, which originated in Europe, arrived in the West in the 19^th century. Tierney said the first artists to paint the West were often commissioned by affluent European collectors. Karl Bodmer, George Catlin, Alfred Jacob Miller and Albert Bierstadt paved the way for later artists who increasingly looked to the American West for inspiration, adventure and a paycheck.

Among those to follow was Charles M. Russell. In 1880, at the age of 16, the Missouri-raised Russell moved to Montana. He worked on a sheep ranch in the Judith Basin and later as a cattle hand, meat skinner, packer and camp tender. Much of Russell’s work depicts the people, wildlife and landscapes of the West during a time of incredible change.

Curtis Tierney, owner of Tierney Fine Art, said Russell’s work – particularly his situational paintings – had a lasting influence on painters of the West.

“The Russell paintings where you see two cowboys on horseback coming around a cliff and they run into a grizzly bear standing up on its hind legs and all hell is ready to break loose, those were situational scenes,” Tierney said “You have to live a real Western life to even come up with that type of material.”

Sarah Burt of the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls said Russell documented the wildlife and lifestyle of the Western plains at a time when civilization was rapidly encroaching. Burt said Russell depicted mountain men harvesting game in the wilderness, but draws a distinction between Russell’s work and the sporting art of the 19^th century.

“The motivation Russell is depicting is something different,” Burt said. “If you lived in the East where the land was settled, you might have been hunting for sport on a big estate. In Russell’s West it is not sport, it is hunting for survival.”

From 1860-1880, the railroad ushered in a new era of Western art. Artists like Thomas Hill were commissioned by the railroads to illustrate the West at a time when photography had yet to play a serious role.

It wasn’t until the early 20^th century that Western sporting art began to define itself as a distinct genre.

The evolution of the art form came with the surge of two major American industries.

“Sporting art really came about with the proliferation of the American firearms industry,” Tierney said. “The sporting artists were commissioned by the shot shell companies, the cartridge companies, the gun companies … Many of the early magazines – Collier’s, Vanity Fair, Outers’ Recreation – would have been completely reliant on artwork to market their products.”

The American “golden age of illustration” lasted from the 1880s through the 1920s. As photography grew in popularity, the market for illustrations declined.

Today, magazines like Gray’s Sporting Journal and Sporting Classics continue to publish high-end sporting art, but the market has shifted and many painters choose to build their careers in the fine art market.

Like many of the Old West illustrators, today’s artists seek to experience the West in a very tangible way. Brett Smith, best known for his paintings of upland gamebird hunting and fly-fishing, spends each summer and fall at a cabin near Libby fishing and drawing inspiration for his work.

“I think more than anything else, what appeals to me about Montana is the landscapes,” Smith said. “It is those ideas that I came out to Montana for originally. Those ideas are what fuel your creative imagination. You look for areas, landscapes, anything. You go out and you like the mood of the day on a particular river and you fuel the idea in your painting.”

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Tags: Brett Smith, C.M. Russell Museum, Charlie Russell, Curtis Tierney, Dan Metz, Tierney Fine Art

This entry was posted by Ben Pierce on Thursday, February 9th, 2012 at 12:01 am and is filed under Bozeman, Fishing, Hunting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.