page_title: Western American Art
section_title: Charles Marion Russell
hierarchical_section_title: Western American Art / Artists / Charles Marion Russell
caption_attribution_description: Work by Charles Marion Russell
context_page_description: Western American Art includes artistic work depicts the subjects related to the Western American, and was treated as impoverished, unwanted and unworthy art before the twentieth century, during which period it achieved respectability as a rewarding region for studying. The term holds a characteristic of narration that is different from the Modern art which focuses on abstraction. For the narration, Western American art focuses on subject than style. Considering as a national art, the subjects are distinct from the European art, namely, there is no elements from other region like Europe. Cowboys and Indians are two well-known subjects and they consist the important part of artistic work of Western American art, demonstrating the daily life and activities of cowboys and American Indian in western American.
  The development of Western American art was affected by the social, political and also economic factors in American society. On the one hand, these factors helped it developed, like the era of U.S. westward expansion; on the other hand, the progress of western American art was also restrained by them, like the industrial development, which spread the modern lifestyle in the West.
context_section_description: Charles Marion Russell, also known as "Kid Russell", was an American artist of the American Old West, who used to be a cowboy in ranch. His cowboy background gave him advantages in his art career that he was familiar with the cowboy life and qualified to record the western history in which he played a part. Russell was unschooled and self-taught but he was recognised as distinguished personality in the area of Western Art. He created more than 2000 paintings of cowboys, Indians and landscapes of the West. During his cowboy career, he was actually not treated as a qualified cowboy but a storyteller and artist who expressed himself through the art and literary poesy. Even after Russell achieved recognition and acclaim, he remained the old traditions of the Old West and was devoted to the West before the white civilisation was imposed upon it.
  Russell born in a big family and was the third of six children. He showed a deep interest toward the art since his childhood. According to his family, Russell had a native artistic talent. He spent an appreciable amount of time at drawing and modelling. Under the influence of western expansion, the slogan "Go West young man" was widely spread in Missouri. Therefore, a tendency to go to the West gradually formed among the young people. Living under this environment, Russell inevitably had a dream of adventure toward the Old West as well. At the age of sixteen, he went to Montana and worked as a cowboy.
  Russell's artistic works covered a various subjects, containing the daily life in the West, historical events and the traditional activities of the cowboys. The harsh reality and drama on the drive through Montana supply a documentary artist with material for a lifetime of work. The roundup in Judith Basin during his cowboy experience provided the idea and subjects for the early artistic efforts of Russell, from which he gained fame as an artist. One of the first large oil canvases he attempted was "The Judith Roundup" which probably done in 1885. During the journey through the rough Montana terrain with beef cattle, they passed where bands of disloyal Piegans and Crows had recently finished a grievous fight. The herd was stopped by the red warriors who asked them to pay the tradition toll for each head of cattle when they crossed the Crow reservation. One of his famous paintings is related to these incidents, which is known as "The Toll Collectors" painted thirty-one years later in 1913.
  Russell's paintings are representative among the artistic works of western American art, because he represented the views of the indigenous people in American instead of the non-native citizens' views. He was famous as a precise documentary artist with a exquisite sense of the West.
caption: The Toll Collectors, 1913
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