The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-10-07
CHARLES RUSSELL
NEW YORKER TELLS SOMETHING
OF INTEREST TO MONTANIANS.
STRANGE TALES ARE RELATED
Fame of a Sage Brush Artist Has
Grown to Interesting Proportions
How the Trail to Renown
Was Blazed.

Romances concerning Montana and
Montana men have broken ont in new
spot. This time p writer in New York
paper takes turn at Charlie Russell,
the cowboy artist. Every one who has
resided in Montana for many years
knows Russell. and those who know him
best admire him mos. and esteem him a
royal good fellow as we'll as a gifted
genius with the brush and pencil. Fall
ing into a mood in which a few facts
offered a springboard from which the
writer vaults into the rarefied atmos>
phere of fancy, a New York newspaper
writer hits the pipe along the following
lines and paragraphs:
|, They grow something more than long
horns, sheep and rustlers out in Mon
tana. as Dr. Steward Webb could testify.
For instance, Great Falls boasts of an
artist whose work is inferior to none of
the famed men of palette and brush
whose canvases repose on salon walls.
This eccentric genius is known as Bill
Russell, the cowboy artist.
On one Of DR.. Webb's visits TO Great
Falls mis- eye CHANGED to fall on a paint
ing hanging in the hotel Where he
stopped. !. was a magnificent canvas
showing pair OF mighty, long horned
bulls in deadly grapple, while tho rest of
the herd was grouped about as if laying
Wagers on the result. The contending
| brutes seemed instinct with life and
| fury. the earth all paved up about their
/ feet. One was half kneeling under the
| fierce onslaught of the enemy, the huge
neck muscles buckled in strenuous fight.
| Mr. Webb was so impressed with the
l..
name of the artist He Vas answered
! by a ild-mannered, Indifferent SEEM
ing man in the rough sarb of he north
west. 1t was Russell The painter dis
cussed the canvas with DR.. Webb and
seemed pleased to meet cultured critic
The latter tried to purchase the picture,
but failed utterly. Russell refused an
almost prncely offer, saying he did not
/ paint for money but pleasure.
| Nobody knows just how Russell exists.
| Technically he is a cowboy, but whose
! outfit he belongs to has not been dis
closed. He will disappear for weeks at
a time, returning with some fresh pic
| ture. AS is to be expected, they are
| ever of scenes and incidents familiar 10
| one whose life has been passed with
rugged nature Oh the frontier of civiliza-
ton. He knows every foot of the state
and wanders at will all over it. He has
presented some canvases, which would
make Il more avarcious man full OF
| wealth, to friendly barkeepers to place
in their saloons.
Indeed, several of the more preten-
tious cafes in Great Falls-it is a rich
land and they can be we'll called pre-
tentious-are wonderfully lifelike and ac-
curate picturings of still and active life
in the mountains and valleys of this re-
gion. His drawings of Indians, cowboys,
cattle, wild animals, ETC., in strife or at
rest, are marvels of true art. Where he
acquired his skill is not known. That
he is untutored is to be discovered from
certain slight crudities which, with brief
schooling in mere technique, could be
eradicated with a sweep Of the brush.
For his own reasOns-no man has been
able to CLEAN them-he has refused
steadfastly to permit a painting of his
to travel east of Montana. He says he
paints for his friends. and they are of
the west.