Carl Rungius: Painter of the Western Wilderness

David Mattison is a librarian with the B.C. Provincial Archives and
Records Services Library.

Produced in conjunction with a Glenbow Museum exhibition of paintings by wildlife artist Carl Rungius, this exquisite appreciation of his career and his art is the first book-length study since his death nearly 30 years ago. Residents of Banff, the authors are well-known writers and scholars of Rocky Mountain history and art. The fact that both Glenbow and the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff have large collections of his work (how large is never revealed) makes Canada a logical choice for the publishing of this landmark volume. Although Rungius was a naturalized American citizen, his spiritual home was in Banff, where he built a studio.

Carl Rungius, a German immigrant to the United States, first appeared in Banff in 1910. The inimitable mountain light influenced his paintings from that point and with strong, almost careless but no doubt calculated movements of his brush, he was able to capture glaciers, a mountain lake, or a flowered meadow in an impressionistic style resembling work by the Group of Seven. His animal studies all capture wildlife’s instinctive curiosity and fear of man. The animals draw the viewer into the paintings. Rungius was an exacting painter who, unlike many other wildlife artists, spent an extraordinary amount of time among his subjects.

Rungius’s talent endeared him to several influential clients who boosted his career. Up to the early 1930s his most important customer was the New York Zoological Society. Magazine illustration also provided a good part of his income. His reputation increased after World War II, but, as the authors note, one of the reasons for his neglect among art historians is the fact that many of his paintings are in private hands.

The design and reproductions are impeccable, but art scholars should note that this is not a catalogue raisonne nor does it function as an actual catalogue to the Glenbow exhibition. Many of the paintings are undated but even where they are, a strict chronological order is not adhered to. The colour gatherings are instead arranged along thematic lines, which roughly parallel stylistic techniques and his subject matter, which varied from all kinds of wildlife to a cattle round-up in Wyoming. Because it represents the largest published collection of his work, no Canadian or American art library should be without this book.