TETONS AND HOME

Grand Tetons

After two weeks in Yellowstone with no cell phone and limited email, we were happy to move south to Coulter Bay where we would be within driving distance to Jackson.  Hopefully in Jackson we would be able to make some phone calls.  But again no cell service in Jackson, so off to the Verizon store where after an hour or so, our SIM card was replaced and then we were back on the grid.  

National Wildlife Art Museum

Of course we drove around every day and took plenty of photos of all the many natural features, but one of the very best places we went was to the National Wildlife Art Museum which houses over 5000 pieces of wildlife art by various artists ranging from contemporary back to about the 1600's.  

Allan giving a moose a hand.

Outside of the museum was a wildlife sculpture walk and the sculptures were not just Wyoming animals, there were other animals represented, such as penguins.

Inside was a striking lobby with a totem pole of animals along with sculptures all throughout the museum with a special room for all the small sculptures which were inside a glass case.

King of the Forest by Rosa Bonheur

One of the largest paintings was also a pastel.  Rosa Bonheur had two paintings in the exhibit and one of them was a soft pastel on linen done in 1897 from a subject outside her home in Fountainbleu.  She was a strong advocate of believing that men were not the only gender that could have artistic talents. 
This painting is about 6 feet tall. 

There were many paintings from the artists of the Hudson River Valley and of the Early American Impressionists.  This painting is by Albert Bierstadt with the wildlife taking second place to the landscape.

There was a section of the room where wildlife art was displayed to show how most artists (and photographers) choose the male of the species to portray.  This painting is of 3 female moose.  "Ladies Lunch" by Ken Carlson in 1994 is depicting a usual scene when showing female animals; they are either eating, or nursing, or protecting their young.

"Deer Among The Aspens" 1939 is by Ernest Martin Hennings of the Taos Society of Artists and shows the influence of the Japanese Woodblock prints that were so popular during that time.

There were many examples of the work by Carl Rungius who was a German artist who initially came to the West to hunt in the early 1900's.  He said that at first he hunted for 6 days and then painted for one day, and then that changed to him painting for 6 days and hunting for one day.  Most of the paintings in the Teton Lodge are by him and his paintings were commissioned by many museums and private parties.  He ended up living in New York in the winter in order to complete his studio pieces although he did do plenty of plein air as well.
This was such a great museum that although we just stopped by for a few minutes, we ended up staying for hours including having lunch at their lovely cafe looking out at the prairie and mountains to the east.  I would have stayed longer but my partner was busy being a turkey and so I thought it was time to go.