Dangerous Sport

Additional Information

After a period of study with Howard Pyle, Philip Goodwin made his career illustrating classic works like Theodore Roosevelt’s African Game Trails and Jack London’s Call of the Wild. Goodwin—a New York native—spent summers in the West, camping, hunting, fishing, and gathering material for his inimitable oils depicting the romance of sport. Along the way, he became close friends with Charles Russell and Carl Rungius. Goodwin’s images made their way into the American sporting unconscious through periodicals, advertising (especially for Remington Arms and Winchester) and calendars—the 20th century American artist’s bread and butter. Dangerous Sport is a tightly composed, strongly triangular predicament picture depicting a hunter, dog, and grizzly bear charging and rearing up on two legs. In addition to the triangle created by the man, dog, and bear, the fallen tree creates separate triangles—one each confining the dog, the hunter, and the bear. It is as if the hunter represents civilization, the dog domestication, and the bear the wilderness. Which will prevail is? Goodwin loved the wild in the wilderness, and it isn’t always clear whose side he’s on. This ambiguity is what makes his work endure.

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