Background
Charles Russell was born on March 19, 1864 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States.
Charles M. Russell in his studio
Charles Russell was born on March 19, 1864 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States.
Russell learned to ride horses at Hazel Dell Farm near Jerseyville, Illinois, on a famous Civil War horse named Great Britain. Colonel William H. Fulkerson was his instructor. At the age of sixteen, Russell left school and went to Montana, where Jake Hoover, a hunter and trader, took Russell under his wing and taught him the ways of the wilderness. Russell spent two years as Hoover’s apprentice.
In 1880, at the age of 16, Charles worked on a sheep ranch in Montana. In 1882, Russell finally secured a job as a night herder in Judith Basin. This was a perfect job for the young artist, because it gave him the opportunity during the day to observe, sketch and document the activities and excitement of the cow camps. He worked as a cowboy and wrangler for eleven years, before retiring in 1893 to become a full-time artist.
Russell greatly admired the Northern Plains Indians, closely observing their ways during summer of 1888, when he lived near the camps of the Blackfeet, Piegan, and Blood Indians in Alberta, Canada. This experience affected him for the rest of his life, and it is reflected in the many detailed works he created of Plains Indian life.
In 1900, together with his wife Nancy Cooper, Charles Russell built a modest frame house in Great Falls and, three years later, a log studio, that Russell filled with his collection of Indian clothing, utilitarian objects, weapons, cowboy gear, "horse jewelry" and other Western props, useful in depicting scenes of the Old West. Russell completed the majority of his significant works in the studio.
By the early 1900s, Charlie Russell had become an internationally known artist, yet he opted to spend his entire life after the age of sixteen in Montana. His love of Montana and the life he observed and participated in there shaped his art and his personal philosophy for forty-six years.
In 1913, Russell painted Wild Horse Hunters, which depicts riders, capturing wild horses, each band of which is dominated by a stallion.
Watching the Iron Horse
Indian on Horseback with a Child
The Surround
Stone-in-Moccasin Woman
War Council
The Peace Pipe
Indian War Party
Cavalry Mounts for the Brave
OH Cowboys Roping a Steer
Carson's Men
Coming across the Plain
Smoking Cattle Out of the Breaks
Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia
A Campsite by the Lake
The Bath
Indians Traveling on Travois
The Signal
The Attack
Deer at Lake McDonald
The Buffalo Herd
The Silk Robe
The Mandan Dance
The Forked Trail
Last Chance or Bust
A Bad Hoss
Street Scene in Arabia
Buffalo Hunt # 10
Trappers Crossing the Prarie
His Heart Sleeps
Indian War Party
Lassoing a Steer
Buffalo Herd at Bay
On the Prowl
Bringing Home the Spoils
Crow Scouts in Winter
Waiting for a Chinook
To the Victor Belong the Spoils
Kickover of Morning Coffee Pot
The Ambush
The Bolter, #2
Start of Roundup
Western Scene
The Stand. Crossing the Missouri
Bucking Bronco
Peaceful Valley Saloon
Buffalo Hunt
Jerked Down
Attack on a Wagon Train
A Slick Rider
Indian Women Moving Camp
York
Planning the Attack
Bronk in a Cow Camp
Lewis and Clark Meeting the Mandan Indians
Captain Lewis Meeting the Shoshones
Seeking New Hunting Ground
In the Wake of the Buffalo Hunters
When the Plains Were His
Blackfeet Burning Crow Buffalo Range
Pointing Out the Trail
The Attack
Planning the Attack on the Wagon Train
Bronc for Breakfast
Indian Woman Moving Camp with Travois
The Broken Rope
On the Trail
In Without Knocking
Cowboy Bargaining for an Indian Girl
Seeking the Trail (detail)
Western Montage
A Piegan Flirtation
A Serious Predicament
The Alarm Bell
Battle of Belly River
The Bison Trail
Indian Hunters' Return
The Medicine Man No. 2
The Making of a Warrior
Free Trappers
Breaking Camp
Lewis and Clark Meeting Indians at Ross' Hole
The Renegade
Deer Grazing
The Heard Quitter
Knight and Jester
Capturing the Grizzly
Mourning Her Warrior Dead
Scouting the Enemy
Casa Alegre
Keeoma
Single Handed
The Hunting Party No. 3
Attack on Muleteers
Indian Camp - Lake McDonald
Self Portrait
Sun Worship in Montana
Crees Coming in to Trade
Crossing the Missouri, #1
Return of the Warriors
Crossing the Range
On the Warpath
Buffalo Coat
The Buffalo Hunt
The Exalted Ruler
The Beauty Parlor
Outnumbered
Watching the Settlers
Meat for the Tribe
Indian Fight, #1
Holdup on the Boston Road
Mandan Warrior
Planning the Attack
The Coming of the White Man
Sun River War Party
Stage Coach Attack
The Truce
The First Trappers
An Old Story
Buffalo Hunt
The Buffalo Hunt
Rainy Morning
Through the Alkali
Caught in the Act
The Attack
Seeing Santa Claus
When Blackfeet and Sioux Meet
When Sioux and Blackfeet Meet
The Cinch Ring
The Bronco Buster
Stolen Horses No. 3 (detail)
Keeoma
In Enemy Country
Sioux Torturing a Blackfoot Brave
She Turned Her Back on Me and Went Imperturbably On With Her Sketching
Indian Buck
The Bucker
Indian Women Moving Camp
Indians Discovering Lewis and Clark
Indian Beauty Parlor
The Herd Quitter
At Rope's End
The Scouting Party
Self Portrait No. 4
Wild Meat for Wild Men
Elk in Lake McDonald
Indian Hunt
The Judith Basin Roundup
The Lazy K Y
Navajo Wild Horse Hunters
Medicine Rock
Bronco Busting
When Cowboys Get in Trouble
Thoroughman's Home on the Range
The Crow Scout
Indian Attack
Wood Nymph
The Challenge, #2
Indian Brave
Hunting Big Horn Sheep
A Wounded Grizzly
Peace
Indian Women Moving
A Cree Indian
Thirsty
When Sioux and Blackfoot Meet
Indian Scouting Party
Whooping It Up
The Tenderfoot
Fording the Horse Herd
Indian Squaw
Waiting and Mad
A Desperate Stand
Deer in a Snowy Forest
Buffalo Hunt
Roping a Grizzly
Plunder on the Horizon
A Strenuous Life
Big Horn Sheep
The Tenderfoot
Indians Hunting Buffalo
Making a Cigarette
The Horse Thieves
The Piegans Preparing to Steal Horses from the Crows
When the Trail Was Long Between Camps
Water Girl
Life Saver
Nobleman of the Plains
Indian with Spear
The Battle Between the Blackfeet and the Piegans
Bronco Busting. Driving In
Smoke of a #45
The Scouts
Joe Kipp's Trading Post
Indians Scouting a Wagon Train
Lake McDonald
Deer in the Dell
Christmas Dinner for the Men on the Trail
Watching for the Smoke Signal
William S. Hart
Smoking Them Out
Quotations:
"You can see what man made from the seat of an automobile, but the best way to see what God made is from the back of a horse."
"Talent is like a birthmark — it's a gift and no credit nor fault to those who wear them."
"Spending that many hours in the saddle gave a man plenty of time to think. That's why so many cowboys fancied themselves philosophers."
"The West is dead. You may lose a sweetheart but you won't forget her."
"The cowboy doesn't need an iron horse, but covers his country on one that eats grass and wears hair."
"A pioneer destroys things and calls it civilization."
Charles Russell felt deeply the passing of the West, the most evident theme of his art. This sense of loss touched him with an emotional immediacy. He was haunted by youthful fantasies, memories of what once was and by the evidence of change, that surrounded him as an everyday reality.
Russell married Nancy Cooper in 1896. In 1916, they gave birth to their son, Jack.