Cowboy Artist Charles Russell - An American Legend
The impact Charles Russell left on our country is still alive to this day.
One book I highly recommend to almost anyone is Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. To the best of my knowledge, the book has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. I can personally attest to the wisdom found in its pages. Essentially, he lays out what he calls the Character Ethic, or basic principles of effective living. Early on, he encourages us to deal with challenges that are in our “circle of influence.” Basically, worry about the things you can change. These are the day-to-day things that come up in our lives, not the grand politics people constantly fuss over. In the opinion of this author, it’s good advice.
Most people will live their whole lives and the best they can hope to do is effectively deal with the things within our circle of influence. Every once in a while though, a person comes along whose “circle of influence” is so large that it vastly exceeds the person’s day-to-day dealings. These are the people we remember. One of those people was a simple cowboy artist named Charles Marion Russell.
Charles Russell, or “Kid Russell” as he would be called during his cowboying days, was born in 1864 in St. Louis, Missouri. At that time, St. Louis was still an important place in the American frontier. Although cities like Bozeman, Denver, and Cheyenne would spring up within that decade, St. Louis was still a hot spot. Russell grew up around many men who told stories of their great western adventures. An adventurous soul at heart, it didn’t take much convincing for young Charlie to head to Montana the first chance he got. That shot, it turns out, came in 1880 when the young man was just 16 years old.
The minute Charlie saw Montana he knew he’d found the place he was destined to live. He lived with a hunter and trapper named Jake Hoover in the early years. During those formative years, he learned much about how to survive in the Montana wilderness, pack a horse, hunt, dress animals, and care for hides. However, it wasn’t too many years before Charles Russell got his start as a cowboy. It was the occupation that would see him through his middle age.
By the time Charlie got to cowboying, the heyday of the cattle drives was winding down. However, the range was still open and the land was still raw. As a result, the big cow outfits employed a good number of cowboys to keep a watch on their herds and do the work. Russell’s first job was as a horse wrangler. In the cowboy world, this wasn’t high up the ladder in any way. Most men wouldn’t keep a job like that for long before making it a point to get a regular riding job. While there were many difficulties when it came to wrangling, one was that it was an all-night job. The wrangler was in charge of keeping the horses close to camp all night. That way, in the morning the cowboys could get their horses caught and get to work. In her book Charlie Russell; The Cowboy Years author Jane Lambert notes that Russell described his first job this way:
“I was sorta shaky at first, with so many horses in the cavvy, but I knowed if I wanted to stick with the roundup and be a cowhand, I’d have to make a good showin’. I’ll say I held them hosses tight - I wanted that job!”
Well, Charles Russell, or the “Buckskin Kid” as he was called at that point on account of his wearing buckskin clothes, got the job. It was the beginning of a rather difficult but adventurous life on the Montana frontier.
Over the years, Kid Russell, as he came to be called, worked for many of the large cow outfits in Montana. However, he always spent much of his time on wrangling duties. He did rep from time to time, and definitely worked cattle, but he was not what you’d call a “top hand.” Instead, he was a good-natured prankster that the other cowboys enjoyed having around.
Charlie was popular for a lot of reasons. One was his generosity. He was generous almost to a fault. Anytime he’d get any money, he’d spend it all on himself and his buddies in the blink of an eye. He was also a great storyteller. In a world before the Internet, TV, and radio, a man who could tell a good story was invaluable for entertainment purposes. Another thing that made Russell so popular was his knack for art. Whether it was sculpting animal figures from wax or clay he kept in his pocket, or a drawing made with a piece of charcoal from the fire, Charlie was always working on his art. What was more, he often drew his friends, their horses, and himself in his art. In doing so, he could get a laugh out of his companions as they reminisced about whatever scene he happened to portray.
Unfortunately, the wild and free life Charles Russell experienced as a young man could not last. Montana was changing and modernizing. Although there were still cowboy jobs to be had, by 1894 he had quit his range riding and focused on his artwork. By this time, he was gaining a reputation beyond his local territory for his work. In fact, he’d already sold some paintings for good money to people far and wide. The more he painted, the more people asked him to paint. Eventually, he even painted a massive mural on the Montana State Capitol building.
Although not an art expert by any means, here are a few of my personal favorite works by Charles Russell.
When the Land Belonged to God
Charles M. Russell and His Friends
Free Trapper
Camp Cook’s Troubles
Round Up on the Mussleshell
Waiting for a Chinook
As you can see, Russell was indeed a good artist, but that’s not what set him apart. What set him apart was his unique experience on the Montana frontier at a time when the West was closing. Even average historians may not realize that by around 1900, the “Wild West” was basically over. Towns had sprung up, railroad track was laid, the telegraph connected people, and, in short, civilization had tamed the wild west. But even as it faded, there was already a yearning for the romance of the wildness. Russell knew exactly what it had looked like, felt like, and smelled like. In his art, he was able to take the audience back just a few years before, to when he was still cowboying, and the land was still open.
In this way, Charles Russell’s impact far exceeded his own personal circle. He not only captured the West for the people of his time, but he captured it for us today. Look at a Russell painting, and you’ll see it all. The beauty, the danger, the excitement. Although the images themselves are just paintings, the thoughts and feelings Russell put into them are palpable still. In the end, this is why we still remember him nearly 100 years after his death. For those of us who wonder about that world, his paintings offer us a look into the past. It’s hard to believe that just a simple horse-wrangling cowboy would have such an impact on American history.
