This Week in the West: Charles Russell: Artist & Original Great Westerner

🤠This Week in the West
🎙️ Episode 72: Charles Russell: Artist & Original Great Westerner

📢 Episode Summary:
This week on This Week in The West, we remember Charles Marion Russell, one of the most important artists to ever capture the spirit of the American frontier. Born March 19, 1864, Russell left his comfortable home in St. Louis at just sixteen years old to pursue his dream of becoming a cowboy in Montana. Instead of following the respectable career paths expected of him, Russell chose the rough life of the open range—an experience that would later define his art.

Before he became famous, Russell spent more than a decade working as a cowboy and night wrangler. During that time, he carefully observed the people, animals and cultures of the West. He lived among cowboys, learned from mountain men and spent time with Native communities, experiences that gave his later paintings an authenticity few artists could match.

Russell’s artistic career began almost by accident during the devastating winter of 1886–87, when he sketched a starving steer in the snow with the caption Waiting for a Chinook. The small drawing circulated among ranchers and townspeople and brought Russell his first attention as an artist. By the early 1890s, he set aside cowboy life to focus on painting full-time.

With the support of his wife Nancy, who became his tireless promoter and business manager, Russell’s work gained national and international recognition. Yet he remained rooted in Montana and committed to telling the stories of the West as he had lived them. Today, Russell’s paintings, drawings and sculptures remain some of the most powerful visual records of frontier life.

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

• How Charles Marion Russell’s real-life experience as a working cowboy shaped the authenticity of his Western art.
• The story behind Russell’s famous sketch Waiting for a Chinook and how it launched his career.
• How Russell and his wife Nancy helped preserve the stories, people and culture of the Old West through art.

👥 Behind the Scenes
Host: Seth Spillman
Producer: Chase Spivey
Writer: Mike Koehler

🔗 Further research:

• The C.M. Russell Museum: https://cmrussell.org/
• The Charles M. Russell Center for the Study of Art of the American West at the University of Oklahoma: https://www.ou.edu/finearts/visual-arts/about/charles-m-russell-center
• PBS Documentary “C.M. Russell and the American West:” https://www.montanapbs.org/programs/CMRussellAmericanWest/

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