Acquired directly from the artist and dedicated to the owner’s children. "To Jr. & Tyler ‘from Dad’ Oct. 31, 1994;" Private collection, Mill Valley, California.

Peter Beard (American, 1938-2020) Kenya Tusker, for the End of the Game, June, 1960 Gelatin silver print, applied mix media, blood, and ink on canvas, 1994 65 x 54 inches (165.1 x 137.2 cm) (image/sheet) Signed, titled, dated, and extensively inscribed in ink in the image and margins. PROVENANCE: Acquired directly from the artist and dedicated to the owner's children. "To Jr. & Tyler ‘from Dad' Oct. 31, 1994;" Private collection, Mill Valley, California. Alternatively titled Elephant Reaching for the Last Branch on a Tree. In Beard's long inscriptions around the border of the print, he argues that elephants and humans face strikingly similar survival crises as growing populations are confined by finite land and resources, leading to environmental destruction, stress, disease, and violence. He challenges conventional conservation approaches by asking whether elephant populations should be left to compete naturally or actively managed to remain in balance with their environment. The inscriptions read in full: Of the 2,000 elephants sampled in Murchison Falls National Park in 1966, all mature individuals (age 13 – 14) were suffering from stress-induced diseases of the cardiovascular system. For decades the conservation establishment has explained away their parochial failures by blaming elephant population decline on "poaching," drought, and even licensed hunting in hopes the problem will evaporate once the HUNTING is controlled but it will NOT EVAPORATE ... Soon EVERYONE will know that the increasing concentration of any species inside their LIMITED HABITAT will result in OVERPOPULATION, HABITAT DESTRUCTION, and possible extinction of the species....so the question is this: SHOULD this species be allowed to find its own level in relentless competition with others for the WORLD'S LIMITED LAND AND RESOURCES, or should this species be BROUGHT INTO BALANCE with the ENVIRONMENT and the other species that inhabit it??? Today this species is ELEPHANT. Towering overwhelming structure, massive as cast iron, and lithe as running water. TOGETHER ELEPHANT & MAN ARE BEING DRIVEN TOWARDS THE EDGE OF THE WORLD Although the elephant, the whale, and homo-sapiens appear to be very different from one another, these three wide-ranging species share fundamental characteristics. They are long-lived plus similar demographic structures, extended period of childhood (long lasting close families) similar social organization... in fact the entire ecology of the elephant is now seen to be more similar to that of man than to any other animal. Man and the elephant are facing similar and simultaneous crises – LIKE SURVIVAL. Animal populations are being increasing confined within LIMITED and unnatural BOUNDARIES - SANCTIFIED GHETTOES. BEYOND THE LIMITS OF THE FOOD SUPPLY... (the carrying capacity) In a world of finite resources, the elephant is second only to man in its capacity to inflict long-term, irreversible damage on its environment reducing the diversity and complexity (as well as the food base) THE ELEPHANT IS RAVAGED BY STRESS, VIOLENCE, HEART DISEASE. THE SAME SYMPTOMS AS MAN. The ruined wood we used to know won't cry for retribution – The men who have destroyed it, will accomplish its revenge - Faulkner They Make a desert & call it Peace HID12401132022 © 2026 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice

Overall very good condition. Craquelure and other creases going horizontally across canvas, likely occurring from being in a previously rolled state. Mixed media and other applied media with slight deterioration, commensurate with age. Sheet is affixed via staples to a stretcher. Not framed.