Charlie Russell: He Shaped Our Impressions Of The American West

 

When the Land Belonged to God                 C. M. Russell, 1914

In 2009 my wife and I made a detailed journey along the Missouri River following the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-06). It took us from the mouth of the river to its headwaters at the continental divide on the Montana-Idaho border. One of our destinations was the very appropriately named city of Great Falls, Montana. The Lewis and Clark expedition reached this same series of forbidding obstacles to navigation in June 1805 and spent a month portaging around them. A century later, the city that grew up around the falls was the home to artist and writer, Charles M. Russell, one of the finest interpreters of the landscape of the American West, its Indian inhabitants, and the cowboy.

Photo portrait of Russell taken around 1900

Russell was born on March 19, 1864, in St. Louis, Missouri, and developed a fascination with the West as a young boy. It never left him. When his parents sent him to boarding school in New Jersey to overcome his obsession, he merely filled his notebooks with sketches of cowboys and Indians until his parents relented and sent him to the frontier with a trusted friend. As a participant-observer, Russell captured Montana in a brief period of perhaps thirty years when boundaries separating the sublime natural setting, Native American culture, and western frontier cowboy culture began to dissolve. In that period his work developed depth and detail and by 1910 he was well-known among art circles from coast to coast. In addition, he had a huge influence on the interpretation of western culture in print and especially in film making. For many years he was the nation's highest earning artist. When he died in 1926, he left a legacy of thousands of illustrations, paintings, sculptures, letters and other material documenting the three themes. Much of that work is displayed today at the C. M. Russell Museum in Great Falls. Within the museum, visitors can see the nature of the Northern Rockies and High Plains and the full range of cultures of those who lived and worked in this beautiful and challenging place. One can see and feel the full range of Russell's personality, from serious to whimsical, by exploring his home and studio.

Russell's Christmas greeting in 1914

Best wishes for your Christmas 

Is all you get from me.

 'Cause I ain't no Santa Claus— 

Don't own no Christmas tree. 

But if wishes was health and money 

I'd fill your buck-skin poke, 

Your doctor would go hungry 

An' you never would be broke.

In the last century, any boy or girl who played "cowboys and Indians," enjoyed stories, illustrations, and films and televisions programs with western themes did so  tgrough Russell's interpretation of his experience. Today, he remains a fascinating example of the reality and mythology of a man who lived his dreams, captured the soul of a vanishing culture, and planted its seeds for others to nuture in their own way. And for citizens of the United States, he is a national treasure. For Big Sky Montana, he is a beloved favorite son.

If you ever find yourself in Great Falls, Montana, pay Charlie a visit. You will not be disappointed.






Sources




Photos and Illustrations:
When the Land Belongs to God, replica, Montana Historical Society, public domain
portrait, public domain
Christmas greeting, Montana Historical Society, public domain


Text:
C. M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, Montana
wikipedia.org
C. M. Russell and the American West, An Unfinished Work, Montana Public Broadcasting Service