Abstract Charles M. Russell was an artist in the late 18th to early 19th century who was a resident of Montana and left behind a legacy we have been showing our children for generations. He lived in the Old-West that helped ranchers as a cowboy and not only made paintings in his free time but carvings, sculptures, and sketches as well, earning him the nickname “Cowboy Artist”. His positive legacy carried on because of how he lived his personal interests, artwork, and because of his wife, Nancy Russell. Charles M. Russell’s existence is a critical piece to Montana’s history because of all the things he had done in his life and how it held an essence of a true man of the Old-West. His wife was key to his success as an artist as it was her who …show more content…
Russell Legacy Charles M. Russell was an artist in the late 18th to early 19th century who was a resident of Montana. What kind of messages or lessons did he leave behind for future generations? Some say he wasn’t the kind of man to be remembered and some say that his existence left a mark in this world that will be remembered for centuries to come. We can decide for ourselves what we think of Charles M. Russell by looking at: • His early years and how he lived • His personal interests • His artwork • His wife, Nancy Russell Understanding these things about Charles M. Russell will give us an answer to what kind of legacy he had left behind. Charles M. Russell’s Early Years and His Life Charles M. Russell was born on March 19th 1864 and came to Montana in 1880 when he was sixteen years old. He worked on a sheep ranch and it was unsuccessful so he found a man named Jake Hoover who would hunt and trap animals for profit and owned a ranch in Judith Basin, they became close lifelong friends. Charles visited his family in 1882 before returning to Montana to life the rest of his life, working as a cowboy for multiple different ranches depending who was hiring and needed the work to be done. In the “Harsh Winter” of 1886-1887 Charles documented it with a small collection of watercolors he made by …show more content…
When he returned in 1889 Judith Basin was becoming more crowded with settlers and accordingly he continued working as a cowboy until he settled in Great Falls, Montana in 1892, and decided to become a full time artist and make a living that way. Charlie M. Russell’s Interests and Artwork Art was always a part of Charles’s life and throughout his life he created over 2,000 paintings and sculptures of the Indians and landscapes in the West, developing nicknames like “Kid” Russell and ‘The Cowboy Artist”. While he grew up in Missouri, Montana, he would draw sketches and make little clay figures, some say he was so good that he could make clay figure behind his back and he had a very strong interest and fascination with the “Wild West” often reading hours on end about cowboys and adventures. When Charles moved to Montana at sixteen it was almost perfect to his interest in the “wild west” as there were dime shows based off western novels that would soon become silent, black and white motion picture films, and are now a stereotype for that time period. He was not the only artist during this time period however, Edgar Samuel Paxson, Edward Borein, and Will Crawford were other well-known artists as well as Charles M. Russell, all famous and popular Old West
Mary Catherine Bateson's Improvisation In a Persian Garden, Annie Dillard's Seeing and Leslie Marmon Silko's Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination
There were many of artists and writers, who demonstrated symbolism and imagery within their work of art, set in nineteenth century New Mexico. Willa Cather and Georgia O’Keeffe were best known as an author and an artist in the nineteenth century. Willa Cather had a long memorable career writing novels, short stories, poems, and essay, and contributing to any newspapers, editor, and journals as writer. She travels at length to gather material for her narrative and characters, and was recognizable with and respect by many other popular writers in the nineteenth century. In one of her novel, “Death Comes for The Archbishop”, Willa Cather demonstrates her unique ability to show remarkably compound landscapes within delightfully expressive writing. She brilliantly includes symbolism and imagery to express lowest point of emotions that are generally applicable, while artfully portraying the victories or failures of her characters. Georgia O'Keeffe spending most of her summer in New Mexico, delighted by the desolate landscape and extensive atmosphere of the desert, would explore the subject of animal bones in her paintings while she in New Mexico. The flowers, she painted the bones puffed up and captured the stillness and isolation of them, while expressing a sense of beauty that lies within the desert. She explored the symbolize and imagery in her magnified paintings of flowers that attract people emotionally, although her purpose was to express that nature in all its beauty was as powerful as the extensive of the period. As an author, Willa Cather demonstrated a history of New Mexico through her writing. As an artist, Georgia O’Keeffe was using paint and canvas to verify the loveliness scene of New Mexico. Even though, Willa Cather and...
Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775-1851, born the son of a London Barber and Wigmaker, is considered one of the greatest European artists of the 19th century. Turner, the English romantic landscape painter, watercolourists and printmaker, was regarded as a controversial and revolutionary figure by his contemporaries despite his training being similar to other artists of the time. His work ‘Walton Bridge’, Oil on Canvas 1806-10, reflects much of his training as a young artists as well as his well-known Romantic style. In this essay I will follow the beginnings of Turners artistic life, showing how his influences, training and opinions surrounding landscape painting have influenced his work ‘Walton Bridge.’ I will further explore how art critics, fellow artists and the wider public of the 19th Century received ‘Walton Bridge’ and his Landscape paintings in general.
Montana 1948 is about the loss of innocence and the painful gain of wisdom. Discuss.
York, Lamar. "Pat Conroy's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Southerner." The Southern Literary Journal 19 (1987): 34-46.
Although technically he was born on the East coast, he grew up in Colorado, and moved to Southern California in 1956 to attend the University of Redlands, where he received a Ph.D. in English in 1965 (Chuang 2009). When Adams returned to Colorado to begin an anticipated career as an English Teacher, he was in shock by the changes he saw in the landscape. Due to the increase of migration into the ‘wild west’, the once familiar wilderness was becoming inundated with industrial development and sub-urban cities. Shortly after returning to Colorado, he bought a 35-mm camera, taught himself the fundamentals of photography, and began making pictures with a passion for the geography of his ‘home’ state (Lippard 2011).
"Fascinating Facts About Charles Richard Drew." The Great Idea Finder. The Great Idea Finder, n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2014. .
The paintings Sioux Village near Fort Laramie by Albert Bierstadt, Dakota Indians by William Gilbert Gaul, and Medicine Man by Charles Marion Russell all represent the frontier life for Native Americans during the American Old West. All three paintings show life on the plains with the wide-open fields. Then Sioux Village near Fort Laramie and Dakota Indians show the N...
Jackson Pollock, one of the 20th Century most famous artists was born on January 28th, 1912 in Cody, Wyoming and was the youngest of five brothers. Pollock’s father, LeRoy Pollock was a farmer and a land Surveyor for the government and his mother, Stella McClure was an art fanatic. The Pollock family moved around and lived in places like Arizona and California due to LeRoy’s surveying. Jackson’s father was an abusive alcoholic and left the family when Jackson was only 8; which led to Jackson’s oldest brother, Charles, to become the “man of the house”. Charles had a huge impact on Jackson’s future, because he too was an artist and Jackson always looked up to him.
The cowboys of the frontier have long captured the imagination of the American public. Americans, faced with the reality of an increasingly industrialized society, love the image of a man living out in the wilderness fending for himself against the dangers of the unknown. By the end of the 19th century there were few renegade Indians left in the country and the vast expanse of open land to the west of the Mississippi was rapidly filling with settlers.
Gardner, Helen, and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective. N.p., 2014. Print.
Mooney, Amy M. “Archibald J. Motley Jr.” The David C. Driskell Series of African American Art: Volume IV. Pomegranate - San Francisco. Copyright 2004 6.
Landscape painting was extremely important during the middle of the nineteenth century. One of the leading practitioners of landscape painters in America was Thomas Cole. He visited many places seeking the “natural” world to which he might utilize his direct observations to convey the untainted nature by man to his audience. His works resolved to find goodness in American land and to help Americans take pride in their unique geological features created by God. Thomas Cole inspired many with his brilliant works by offering satisfaction to those seeking the “truth” (realism) through the works of others.
Contemporary artists of Native American descent do not recoil from these stereotypes. In contrast, they draw upon these characterizations and combine it with their first hand experience to convey a truly significant piece of historical and artistic perspective. The contemporary artist’s versions are not as theatrical in appearance as the mainstream depiction.
Perhaps the most significant myth in American culture is that of the American frontier. Its symbolic meaning created such moral, ethical, and emotional values in American that it paved the way for a country that would grow from an East Coast settlement, to a coast-to-coast nation of progress. One of the most famous stories in frontier mythology is that of Paul Bunyan. Although Bunyan’s stories didn’t appear on paper until the early twentieth century, his stories were passed down by word of mouth telling the tale of the “Last of the Frontier Demigods.” “Paul Bunyan was the most famous folk hero of his time, and a symbol of American size, strength, and ingenuity.” He influenced the culture of our country in three ways: in oral folk tales, in popularizations, and in works of art.” Although these traditions are separate from each other, they are closely interwoven. He was the American frontiersman who was mythically responsible for developing the west. He would take his giant axe and clear hundreds of acres a day to make way for civilization on the frontier. By his side was his blue ox, which is said to be responsible for plowing the Grand Canyon and assisting with other western marvels.