Charles M. Russell: Merging Western Art with Impressionism

Spearing A Buffalo:

Art of The American West

The art of the American West has long been honored in the states whose history it records, but it hasn’t always been accepted in the larger art world. Thirty years ago, it was often seen as an out of touch genre, fed by a love of nostalgia and history. Today, it is slowly entering museums across the U.S. and the great works of the American Western artists are being recognized. Charles M. Russell was truly an artist of the American West. He created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Indians, and landscapes set in the western United States. Of Russell’s paintings, a large number of them depict Indians hunting buffalo. His painting, Spearing A Buffalo, finished in 1925, was one of the last pieces he completed. This piece, for Charles M. Russell, is unique because the theme of the painting is, of course, western and depicts an Indian spearing a buffalo as the main subject. However, the style strays away from what Russell typically does, which is more naturalistic, and demonstrates techniques used in impressionistic works. Spearing A Buffalo was a painting that honored the history of the “wild west” and, at the same time, hooked the larger art world with its new and diverse style of

this subject matter which was otherwise seen as an out-of-touch genera that was only fed by nostalgia and could not grow and be further developed like other art movements in that time.
The piece is an oil painting on canvas with dimensions of 17 1/2 x 29 3/8 in.

Spearing a Buffalo was painted in1925 by and American painter: Charles M. Russell. The piece’s present location is at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Spearing a Buffalo depicts a western American landscape of sagebrush and foothills in the middle and foreground with a mountainous background. A Native American impales a buffalo with a long spear from atop his horse in the center of the painting as the focus and in the back we can see another Native American on his horse chasing the rest of the herd. Spearing a Buffalo creates a dynamic movement with its diagonal drawing lines and references to impressionism with its specific use of

color.
The piece is a very energetic and dynamic work that moves the eye throughout by the use of color and line. Because of Russell’s brilliant use these two aspects, the audience can fall into the dynamic motions of this painting almost as if it were a still from a movie. The use of color is so drawing within this piece because Charles M. Russell placed matching bits of color across the piece. Blue can be seen zigzagging all the way from the foreground on the sagebrush, through the middle ground in the shadows and on the horse and rider, all the way to the mountains and sky in the background. Along with the blue, similar technique can was used with the yellow and brown tones. The brown specifically is drawn diagonally across the page from the sagebrush on the left, to the central lone buffalo, to the chaps of the mounted Native American, and again to the background buffalo and foothill that they are on. The use of line also draws the eye through this piece. There is an obvious, strong line from the Native American’s spear that brings us either from the central focus of him and the buffalo to the background herd, or from the central focus of him and the buffalo to the foreground sagebrush. Also with this, the lines cutting into the landscape flow from front to back and carry the eye of the audience with them.
Along with its ability to draw the audience through the piece, Spearing a Buffalo also references impressionist art through color and ephemerality. The technical use of color in the painting shows reference to the impressionists because of the way the shadows are rendered. This can most easily be seen on the horse in the center of the painting and in the dune cut to the right of the horse. Instead of using black to render shadows, Charles M. Russell, like the impressionists, uses colors such as blue and purple to show that the light behaves differently in that space. He shows that within the color makeup that its truly their and what the eye would see, black isn’t the color of a shadow in the natural world. Charles M. Russell also uses color next to color. This can be seen on the fur of the buffalo, the hide of the horse, and the leaves of the sage brush. By doing this he creates a colorful image that introduces a sense of activeness, but does not look unnatural.
With his use of impressionistic color reference and dynamic, drawing movement for the audience’s eye, Charles M. Russell creates an active and colorful piece that is immediately entrancing for the viewer and brilliantly utilizes important techniques within his modern practice. All of the techniques used in this painting, Spearing a Buffalo, give the audience an image to see and enjoy immediately, or to delve into for a long look.
During the 1920’s American Western artists, like Charles M. Russell, rose to fame because as the “cowboys and Indians” era concluded, the love, nostalgia, and history of it flourished. Russell, as an 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 ad features of the silent era, the westerns that have become a movie staple. There was a boom within the United States after WWI for just about everything imaginable including art. While most of the Art world went in new directions with the surrealist movement and the beginning of the Art Deco movement, American Western Artists looked back on where we had been and unearthed the love for the history within the states in which is was recorded.
Because Spearing A Buffalo played into a different style than most of Russell’s work, it fit into its time on another level more than simply falling into the nostalgic love for the old west. Art was moving rapidly in ever changing directions and kept re-defining what art it-self could be. Because of this, Charles M. Russell slowly began to work this into his art in different ways. As stated early, Spearing A Buffalo has obvious influences from impressionism. This was something that had rarely been seen within art among the American Western Artists. At this time everyone was looking for the new idea of art and Russell threw his hat into the pot as he generated the beginnings of a new style within American Western Art.
Spearing A Buffalo is arranged is a very dynamic way that adds to the ephemerality of the piece and its references to impressionism. Along with the formal techniques and composition, Charles M. Russell’s Spearing A Buffalo fit into the cultural times contextually because although this was Russell’s style and passion, Indians were popular subjects into the 1920’s when the “cowboys and Indians” era had, only a few years before, concluded.