Charles Russell's A Mix Up

Charles Marion Russell (1864-1926), A Mix Up, 1910, oil on canvas, 30 1/2 x 40 1/2 inches. Gift of Robert F. Rockwell, Jr., 78.54

Charlie Russell was many things: consummate Westerner, historian, advocate for the Plains Indians, cowboy, outdoorsman, writer, philosopher, environmentalist conservationist, and not least, artist. Russell greatly admired the American Indians, especially those of the Northern Plains, and spent the summer of 1888 visiting often with the Blood Indians in Alberta, Canada. This experience affected him for the rest of his life, and can be seen in the many detailed works he created of Plains Indians.

Born in St. Louis, Charles Russell became a legendary painter and sculptor of frontier activities of the American West. He was popularly known and "The Cowboy Artist" because, unlike his well-known counterpart, Frederic Remington, he preferred to paint the Cowboys and the Indians rather than the cavalry men.  A prolific artist, Russell often sketched and painted in letters to friends and acquaintances.  These letters are now highly prized works of art.

"One of the best animal painters in the world is Charles M. Russell of Montana, who is popularly known as ‘The Cowboy Artist'. His specialties are frontier scenes, wild Indian life, cattle pieces and natural history subjects, all of which are...embued with truthfulness of character and detail that is possible only for those...who are to the manner born."                                     - Nature's Realm, 1891