Philip Russell Goodwin

Philip Russell Goodwin was born on September 16, 1881, in Norwich, Connecticut. He trained at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Art Students League of New York before continuing his studies at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry in Philadelphia, where he came under the tutelage of Howard Pyle and continued studying with Pyle at the Brandywine School in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. No source documents a specific degree or graduation date from these institutions.

Goodwin built his career as a magazine and book illustrator specializing in hunting, fishing, and wilderness subjects. He is best known for illustrating Jack London's The Call of the Wild and for contributing to Theodore Roosevelt's African Game Trails alongside Charles M. Russell and Carl Rungius. He also designed the Horse and Rider trademark used by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and produced cover art for outdoor and sporting magazines through the 1920s and into the early 1930s.

In early December 1935, Goodwin fell ill with pneumonia. According to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West and Sporting Classics Daily, he collapsed and was taken to a hospital in Port Chester, New York, where he died within a day or two; Wikipedia lists his place of death as nearby Mamaroneck, New York. He died in mid-December 1935 at age 54; sources vary on the exact date, giving December 12, 13, or 14. The New York Times ran a brief obituary describing him as an illustrator known for his wildlife and sporting pictures and for his work on African Game Trails.

No verbatim, critic-signed reviews of Goodwin's work in major art-press outlets could be confirmed in current sources. His reputation instead rests on institutional and market description: Casterline Gallery presents him as a leading figure of the American Golden Age of Illustration, and Rock Island Auction Company has characterized him as an under-appreciated master of Wild West and outdoor art. The Buffalo Bill Center of the West's 2025 essay on Goodwin traces a market revival beginning around 1973, after decades of relative obscurity following his death, as his name began appearing more frequently in books and articles on Western and wildlife art.

Goodwin's market is a specialist one, concentrated among auction houses that focus on Western, sporting, and wildlife art. The highest fully documented public sale is Dangerous Sport, which brought USD 786,500 at the Coeur d'Alene Art Auction; the exact sale date is not confirmed in available sources. Market-data sources including MutualArt and Rock Island Auction Company report a higher price of up to USD 968,000 for a Goodwin painting, but the title, auction house, and exact date of that sale are not confirmed and should be treated as provisional. Results at other major auction houses, including Heritage Auctions and Rock Island Auction Company, have run well below these figures, and much of his broader market consists of smaller sales in the hundreds to low thousands of dollars.

Goodwin's market runs through a small set of specialist auction houses, including Coeur d'Alene Art Auction, Heritage Auctions, Rock Island Auction Company, and Jackson Hole Art Auction, rather than through a formal gallery or estate. There is no catalogue raisonne, and the specifics of any biographical monograph on the artist are not independently confirmed, which makes provenance and attribution through auction-house and museum expertise especially important. Because his top public sale results are few and even the highest reported figure lacks a confirmed title, house, and date, a single strong or weak result can move the picture of his market significantly, and collectors should weigh his broad museum presence as the more stable signal of long-term demand.