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Charles Marion Russell Biography
American painter & sculptor
born 1864 - died 1926
Friend of: Olaf C. Seltzer (1877-1957)
Charles Marion Russell - Montana's most
famous artist, and, along with Frederic
Remington, one of the two most famous
artists ever to paint the West - was born in
St. Louis, Missouri on March 19, 1864.
He came to Montana in 1880, at the age of 16,
just four years after Custer's fatal last
stand at the Little Big Horn. |
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His first job in Montana was
sheepherder - and Charles Marion Russell was terrible at it.
"I'd lose the damn things as fast as they
put 'em on the ranch," he said later. Fired
from that job, he helped professional meat
hunter, Jake Hoover, spending about two
years learning about Indians, wildlife, and
Montana's past.
In 1882 Charles Marion Russell went to work as a cowboy, working
as night wrangler on cattle drives and
round-ups. During the bitter cold winter of
1886-1887, Charlie was staying on the O.H.
Ranch. In a reply to the owners of the ranch
who asked about the condition of their herd,
Charlie drew a sketch of a gaunt, starving
cow surrounded by wolves, and titled it
"Waiting for a Chinook" The sketch was
reproduced in the Montana newspapers, and is
still today one of best-known
Charles Marion Russell paintings.
Charlie Russell died on October 24, 1926, of
heart failure, and he was deeply mourned by
the entire state of Montana. In Great Falls,
city offices and schools were closed on the
day of his funeral. His first roundup boss,
Horace Brewster, told the newspaper, "He
never swung a mean loop in his life, never
done dirt to man or animal, in all the days
Charles Marion Russell lived."
All the time Charles
Marion Russell continued his oil painting, spending long hours
sketching the wild animals he observed in
his daily life. Two years after moving to
Montana he hired out as a cowboy, to keep
watch on horses, and later as a "night hawk"
to watch the cattle at night. Russell was
constantly sketching during his off hours
and was slowly developing a local reputation
as an artist. In 1888, Russell had his first
national exposure when one of his sketches
appeared in Harper's Weekly, his first paid
illustration. His years as a cowboy
were to be very important in his art. His
firsthand experiences and his intimate
knowledge of the cowboy's tools and ways
were to produce the distinctive realism that
is characteristic of his style. Charles
Marion Russell portrayed
actual events and people in his paintings.
Many legends and stories of the West that
he often used in Charles Marion Russell paintings were originally
heard by him in evening discussions and
camp talk during his years as a cowboy.
Russell was also a fervent admirer of the
American Indian and often portrayed them as
heroic figures struggling to preserve their
way of life. In the winter of 1888-89,
he lived with the primitive Blood
Indians in Canada. By 1892, Russell was a
full-time painter. |
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