This large oil painting originally decorated the walls of Murthly Castle and celebrated Stewart’s valor, hunting skills, and exotic travels in the West. Pictured here is Stewart confronting an aroused grizzly bear. Two of Stewart’s companions can be seen in the distance riding toward the hunter and hunted, but impeded by rocks and trees. A precipitous mountain, a few years later to be named Fremont Peak, rises abruptly in the background, accentuating the perilous nature of the unfolding scene. Stewart and the bear, highlighted in otherwise darkened surroundings, perform as actors on a stage in nature’s enduring drama of man against nature.
The artist; Sir William Drummond Stewart, 1839; Frank Nichols 1871; [Appleby Brothers]; [B. F. Stevens and Brown, London, England, 1937]; Everett D. Graff, Winnetka, IL, 1937; present owner by gift of the Graff family
