The model for this bronze was one of Russell’s earlier multiple versions in painted plaster. These plaster casts, generally intended for the artist’s family and friends, were personalized and less expensive alternatives to his bronzes. The compact composition of the work made it easy to cast in plaster, using some type of flexible mold so additional copies could be made. The bronze version was the artist’s first attempt to transform one of the plaster multiples into more permanent form. The subject itself, a ruminating bison at rest, is a naturalistic portrayal of the animal’s everyday habits. “When undisturbed on his chosen range, the bison used to be fond of lying down for an hour or two in the middle of the day, particularly when fine weather and good grass combined to encourage him in luxurious habits,” wrote the naturalist William T. Hornaday in 1889. He further observed that the buffalo was always careful to lie down with his nose pointing to windward, in order to detect the threat of danger. “The Rocky Mountains would have been hard to reach without him,” Russell wrote an acquaintance in 1925, the year the bronze was first exhibited. “He fed the explorer the great fur trade wagon tranes felt safe when they reached his range he fed the men that layed the first ties across this great west Thair is no day set aside where he is an emblem the nickle wears his picture, dam small money for so much meat he was one of nature’s biggest gifts and this country owes him thanks.” It is estimated that fewer than eight casts of this bronze were made prior to Nancy Russell’s death in May 1940, and the example pictured here was the only copy that was noted in the inventory of her estate. The original retail price of the bronze was $125.