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| Affiliation | Nonpartisan |
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| Name | Charles Marion Russell |
| Address |
, Montana , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
March 19, 1864 |
| Died |
October 24, 1926
(62 years) |
| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Last Modifed | Juan Croniqueur
Apr 06, 2023 10:27pm |
| Tags |
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| Info | Charles Marion Russell (1864, Oak Hill, Missouri – 1926, Great Falls, Montana), also known as C. M. Russell, was one of the great artists of the American West. Russell created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Indians, and landscapes set in the Western United States, in addition to bronze sculptures. The C. M. Russell Museum in hometown of Great Falls, Montana houses more than 2,000 Russell artworks, personal objects, and artifacts. His mural entitled Lewis and Clark Meeting the Flathead Indians hangs in the state capitol building in Helena, Montana. His 1918 painting Piegans sold for $5.6 million dollars at a 2005 auction.
Art was always a part of Russell's life. Growing up in Missouri, he drew sketches and made clay figures of animals. He had an intense interest in the wild west and would spend hours reading about it. He would watch explorers and fur traders who frequently came through Missouri. Russell learned to ride horses at Hazel Dell Farm in Jerseyville, Illinois on a famous Civil War horse called "Great Britain." His instructor was Col. William H. Fulkerson who had married into the Russell family. At the age of sixteen, he left school and went to Montana to work on a sheep ranch.
In 1896, he married his wife Nancy. In 1897, they moved from the small community of Cascade, Montana to neighboring Great Falls, where Russell spent the majority of his life from that point on. There, he continued with his art, becoming a local celebrity and gaining the acclaim of critics worldwide. As he kept primarily to himself, Nancy is generally given credit in making Russell an internationally known artist. She set up many shows for him throughout the United States and in London creating many followers of Russell's.
Russell the artist arrived on the cultural scene at a time when the "wild west" was being chronicled and sold back to the public in many forms, ranging from the dime novel to the wild west show and soon evolving into motion picture shorts and features of the silent era, the so-called [westerns] that have become a movie staple. Russell was fond of these popular art forms, and made many friends among the well-off collectors of his works, including actors and film makers such as William S. Hart, Harry Carrey, Will Rogers and Douglas Fairbanks. He also kept up with other artists of his ilk, including painter Edward "Ed" Borein and Will Crawford the illustrator.
On the day of Russell's funeral in 1926, all the children in Great Falls were released from school to watch the funeral procession. Russell's coffin was displayed in a glass sided coach, pulled by four black horses.
In 1965, a high school was built on the north side of the Missouri River and named Charles M. Russell High School, in honor of Russell.
Ian Tyson's 1987 album, "Cowboyography", includes a song entitled "The Gift" telling the story of Russell.
In 1991, Russell was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
Some of Russell's paintings were shown during the credits of the television series How the West Was Won.
Along with Jeannette Rankin, the first female member of the United States Congress, Russell represents Montana in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol.
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