Charles Marion Russell
Charles Marion Russell (March 19, 1864 – October 24, 1926),[1][2] also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an American artist of the American Old West. He created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Native Americans, and landscapes set in the western United States and in Alberta, Canada, in addition to bronze sculptures. He is known as "the cowboy artist"[3] and was also a storyteller and author. He became an advocate for Native Americans in the west, supporting the bid by landless Chippewa to have a reservation established for them in Montana. In 1916, Congress passed legislation to create the Rocky Boy Reservation.
"Charlie Russell" redirects here. For other uses, see Charlie Russell (disambiguation).
Charles M. Russell
March 19, 1864
October 24, 1926 (aged 62)
American
Painting, bronze sculpture
The C. M. Russell Museum Complex in Great Falls, Montana houses more than 2,000 Russell artworks, personal objects, and artifacts. Other major collections are held at the Montana Historical Society in Helena, Montana, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Sid Richardson Museum in Fort Worth. His 1912 mural Lewis and Clark Meeting Indians at Ross' Hole hangs in the House chambers of the Montana Capitol in Helena,[4] and his 1918 painting Piegans sold for $5.6 million at a 2005 auction.[5] In 1955, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.[6]
Childhood[edit]
Art was always a part of Russell's life. Growing up in Missouri, he drew sketches and made clay figures of animals. Russell had an intense interest in the "wild west" and would spend hours reading about it. Russell would watch explorers and fur traders who frequently came through Missouri. He learned to ride horses at Hazel Dell Farm near Jerseyville, Illinois, on a famous Civil War horse named Great Britain. Russell's instructor was Col. William H. Fulkerson, who had married into the Russell family. At the age of sixteen, Russell left school and went to Montana to work on a sheep ranch.[7]
Portrait by A.O. Gregory
C. M. Russell statue by John Weaver; Identical statues are held in the National Statuary Hall Collection and by the Montana Historical Society.
Laugh Kills Lonesome, oil on canvas, 1925. Along with Bronc to Breakfast and In Without Knocking, arguably the most famous of Russell's "cowboy" paintings.
Bronc to Breakfast, oil, 1908
In Without Knocking 1909
Loops and Swift Horses are Surer than Lead, 1916
The Herd Quitter
Roundup #2, oil 1913
Cowpunching Sometimes Spells Trouble, 1889, Oil on canvas, Sid Richardson Museum, Fort Worth, Texas [27]
![Cowpunching Sometimes Spells Trouble, 1889, Oil on canvas, Sid Richardson Museum, Fort Worth, Texas [27]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/Cowpunching_Sometimes_Spells_Trouble.jpg/356px-Cowpunching_Sometimes_Spells_Trouble.jpg)
When Cowboys Get in Trouble (The Mad Cow), 1899, Oil on canvas, Sid Richardson Museum, Fort Worth, Texas [27]
![When Cowboys Get in Trouble (The Mad Cow), 1899, Oil on canvas, Sid Richardson Museum, Fort Worth, Texas [27]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/When_Cowboys_Get_in_Trouble_%28The_Mad_Cow%29.jpg/338px-When_Cowboys_Get_in_Trouble_%28The_Mad_Cow%29.jpg)