The sculpture copyrighted as Lone Wolf in 1928 was one of several bronzes cast in either the last few months of Russell’s life or the months immediately after his death from plaster models created more than twenty-five years earlier. Russell’s interest in this particular subject may have stemmed in part from contemporary accounts of wily and elusive renegade wolves that bedeviled stockmen at the turn of the twentieth century. Ernest Thompson Seton, a nature writer whom Russell eventually met during his first visit to New York in the winter of 1903–4, wrote highly popular stories on two such outlaws—Lobo of Currumpaw and the Winnepeg Wolf—that stirred up some controversy because Seton ascribed certain human qualities to the embattled creatures. Seton’s wolves were actually based on experiences with a number of real-life wolves, including the huge wolf known as Black Buffalo Runner, the gray wolf called the Virden Wolf, and a bob-tailed brown animal known as the Jack Harris Wolf. All of these “Lone Wolf” renegades established legendary careers on the open plains in the 1890s, and Russell’s earliest depictions of his “Lone Wolf”—in both painting and sculpture—date from that period. The earliest painted plaster model of the Lone Wolf was given to a Great Falls resident as a Christmas present in 1901. At least eight other examples of the painted plaster version have been identified in public and private collections. The later casting history of the bronze of Lone Wolf is somewhat obscure, however, since virtually no records have been located concerning the production or sale of the work. The initial casts must have been produced prior to November 1927, when one was exhibited at a memorial exhibition of the artist’s work. The example pictured here from the museum’s collection, cast by Roman Bronze Works, is one of three that remained in the Nancy Russell estate after her death in May 1940.