Charles Marion Russell
Charles Marion Russell ( born March 19, 1864 in Oak Hill, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, † October 25th 1926 in Great Falls, Montana ) was an American painter, sculptor, illustrator and writer. He was known for his portrayal of the American West. In addition to Frederic Remington, he was the most important American artist of his time. His mural entitled Lewis and Clark meet the Flathead Indians located in the State Capitol in Helena (Montana). He created more than 4,000 paintings and sculptures.
- 2.1 Painting
- 2.2 Books
- 2.3 Museums
Life
Charles M. Russell was born in Oak Hill, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. His parents Mary Elizabeth Mead and Charles Silas Russell had beside him four sons and one daughter. Even as a child showed his artistic talent - he always wore beeswax and drew much. With clay he made his first attempts in the forms. His interest in art was born surely a large part of his mother, who was a talented artist.
Despite, or perhaps because of his artistic skills, he was not a good student. Russell hated school and often stayed away from the classroom. When his grades deteriorated dramatically, his parents sent him to a military school. But hope is on the teaching of discipline fell through. Russell was also against the officers do not hold back and eventually became the school referenced.
Ever since early youth it was his desire to move into the Wild West and be cowboy. In 1880, his parents explained agree and sent him along with a family friend in the Montana Territory. At first, the 16 -year-old Russell suggested by various odd jobs before he found a job as a Cowboy in 1882. There he worked the next 11 years. During this time, Russell took advantage of every free minute for drawing and painting.
He soon became famous among the other cowboys, not for his riding or lasso arts, but rather for his detailed drawings and images. Of particular importance is his portrayal of the bitter cold winter of 1886/1887 in Montana. The picture Waiting for a Chinook shows a starving, freezing steer, which is surrounded by wolves. This work is one of the most famous images Russell. His interest is limited not only to the lives of white settlers and cowboys. About the Indians, he said:
"The Red is what the true American. They have almost gone but will never be forgotten. ".
Russel and she wanted to hold her life in his pictures before everything was gone. In 1888 he spent some time in Canada, where he met daily with Indians. They taught him sign language and called him Ah -wah - cous ( antelope ). This expertise has benefited his pictures and so it can be determined that he was the first painter to the Indians represented not as savages, but as worthy of the nobles of the plains.
1896, at the age of 32, he married the only eighteen year old Nancy Cooper. With her he moved to Great Falls ( Montana) and set up a studio one. She supported him in his work, took care of in a skillful way the finances and enabled him to concentrate on art. Thus he was able in 1911 to open his first solo exhibition The West That Has Passed in New York. This marked the entry into the national and international art world. He was commissioned by the House of Representatives of the U.S. state of Montana to create a painting for the State Capitol Building. In 1914 he exhibited his work in London.
During a visit in Calgary, Canada, the Prince of Wales bought a picture of Russell, which hangs in Buckingham Palace today. The painting changed hands for a price of $ 10,000. At that time this was the highest price ever paid for a painting by a living American artist. From now on Russell exhibited his work throughout the country. In 1925 it was named in honor a special exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC organized. But since 1923, Russell was suffering from sciatica, making him increasingly disabled. He died on 25 October 1926 at the age of 62 of a heart attack in Great Falls ( Montana).
As a painter ...
The painter Charles M. Russell is known for his portrayal of the West of the USA. Themes of his artistic representations are cowboys and Indians as well as the landscape and nature of the Old West. His particular interest was also the Lewis and Clark expedition. In all, he created more than 4,000 paintings and sculptures. Much of his work is in C. M. Russell Museum (Great Falls, Montana ) issued. Individual images can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art ( New York City ), Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Minnesota), National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum ( Oklahoma), Sid Richardson Collection of Western Art (Texas), Amon Carter Museum (Texas ) Glenbow Museum (Alberta, Canada), Rockwell Museum of Western Art (Corning, NY), the Whitney Gallery of Western Art in the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming and the Stark Museum of Art ( Texas)
See also: art / paintings
As a writer ...
Russell published in the years 1921, 1925 and 1927 three books of short stories. His stories act as his pictures and sculptures of life in the Wild West. As narrator immersed in his literary work again and again to the figure of Rawhide Rawlins. All books were illustrated by himself.
See also: art / literature
Works
Painting
- Indian Braves (New York City, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inv 1970.286 ), Watercolor on paper, 1899, 53 cm x 74.6 cm
- Lewis and Clark Meeting the Flathead Indians (Helena, Montana State Capitol ), oil on canvas, 1912, 3.65 mx 7.61 m
- Rawhide Rawlins Stories, Montana Newspaper Assoc., Great Falls ( 1921)
- More Rawhides, Montana Newspaper Assoc., Great Falls ( 1925)
- Trails Plowed Under, Doubleday & Company ( 1927)
- Good Medicine; The Illustrated Letters of Charles M. Russell, Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1929
Museums
- C. M. Russell Museum, Great Falls ( Montana): Storage, collect, research and interpret the art of Charles M. Russell