Author Description

Many artists have seen history in the making but few have recorded that history with the inspiration, fidelity, and wealth of material that Charles Marion Russell has left us in oils, watercolor, and bronze. His canvas was the sweep of a thousand miles of prairie and sky, back-dropped by the mighty Rockies, traversed by the Missouri and Yellowstone, and peopled by a dozen tribes of wild Indians only a generation or two from the Stone Age when he arrived in Montana Territory. Russell saw the last of the mountain men and gold seekers. He heard the bawling longhorns coming up the trail from Texas; the beginning of a vast ranching industry was to unfold before his eyes. Eventually he saw both the Indian's and the cowman's "trails plowed under" as hordes of land-hungry settlers poured in from the East. Russell's paintings and sculpture have a universal appeal to our eyes and emotions. Youngsters of all ages have had their blood stirred by the flashing action of Russell's art -- the clash of Indian war parties, the cowboys on their wildly pitching broncos. Old-timers observing Russell's paintings note with satisfaction that every detail is "right," from the bead-work design that identifies the Indian's tribe, to the make of the saddle that tells them where the cowboy hails from. Historians rely on Russell's paintings for the way the Indian looked and dressed in that period. Naturalists consider him one of the world's pre-eminent sculptors of wild animals. Nearly 250 illustrations, of which 80 are in full color, include paintings, sculpture, drawings, and memorabilia. A detailed commentary accompanies each work of art. - Jacket flap.