Throughout Russell’s lifetime, the wolf was considered the westerner’s greatest enemy. Enshrouded by age-old fears and mythical beliefs, the wolf stood little chance of being as appreciated or understood as other wild predators like the grizzly bear. Ernest Thompson Seton, a nature writer whom Russell met in New York during the latter’s first trip there, was similar to the artist in that he based his understanding of the wolf on personal experience. Seton had observed the daily habits of the packs, their family patterns and seasonal movements, and had talked to many hunters and ranchmen, sorting myth from fact. Out of this he developed a respect for the wolf that paralleled Russell’s own. Seton felt that the wolves had successfully adjusted their habits to the threat of man, and they had learned to avoid the traps and poison that were intended to eliminate them on the Montana ranges. Russell was likewise sympathetic to the plight of the wolf, and like the Indian he viewed the embattled animal as a necessary part of nature, and no less worthy for it. Thus this small sculpture, titled The Last Laugh, depicting a wolf that, having come upon a human skull, curls its lips in a snarl of derision and seems to relish a moment of victory over its bitter enemy. Russell modeled the sculpture in 1916, and the Benjamin Zoppo foundry produced the initial casts by November of that year. Nancy Russell ordered twelve casts at a unit cost of $10, all finished in what she termed “a dull green shade of bronze.” Although the bronze was displayed at the Calgary and Saskatoon stampedes in 1919, it seems not to have been exhibited anywhere else in the artist’s lifetime. The bronze pictured here, cast by the Zoppo Foundry, is one of two casts that remained in Nancy Russell’s estate at the time of her death.