C.M. Russell

Hometown: Great Falls, Montana
Major medium: Oils
Art background: Cowboy

 

Charlie Russell is Montana's beloved cowboy artist and along with Frederic Remington, one of the leading western genre painters.. He was born in 1864 in St. Louis, Missouri and moved to frontier Montana at the age of 16. He went to work as a cowboy, braving the notoriously harsh winter of 1888, and sketched the famous picture of a lone, scrawney steer to document the tough life on the range. His sketches were picked up by Montana newspapers and his artistic reputation began to grow.

He married Nancy Cooper in 1896, and with her to handle the business end of his art, his oils, watercolors, and bronzes began to sell and, to his surprise, were fetching what he called "dead man's prices." His reputation grew in his lifetime and he was beloved as Montana's own fine artist. his death in 1924 was mourned across the state, and in Great Falls, 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 he lived."

Sacajawea Gallery offers prints of several Russell works, including work he did on the historic Lewis & Clark journey. Contact the gallery for print prices and availability.

 

Sacajawea Gallery - 301 Main st. Stevensville, MT 59870 - (406) 777-3806