Carl Rungius - Trip To The Canadian Rockies

Trip To The Canadian Rockies

In 1910, Banff tour guide Jimmy Simpson saw a reproduction of Rungius’s painting Wary Game, a painting of six Dall rams on a high spur of a wind-swept Yukon mountain ridge, in an issue of The Bulletin put out by the New York Zoological Society. Upon seeing the painting, Simpson declared “that fellow knows his animals and he knows his sheep.” Simpson wrote Rungius a letter in which he extended a generous invitation; if Rungius could get to Banff, Simpson would take him out on a sheep hunt at no cost. In 1910, Rungius accepted an offer to visit the Canadian Rockies, and would go on to paint a large number of his paintings there. He enjoyed the opportunities for hunting, exploration, and sport to such an extent that 1921, he built a studio in Banff, Alberta called "The Paintbox." Rungius said that “I could not think of any more suitable place than Banff in Alberta. A province which has practically every species within its borders. Easy to reach and a cosmopolitan, broad-minded town right in the wilderness, at the same time offering all the comforts of a big city. My wife who had been with me here a couple of times also liked Banff and approved the idea.” Rungius worked in his Banff studio from April to October every year until his death in 1959.