Charles M. Russell

Charles M. Russell was born near the end of the Civil War in Oakhill, just outside St. Louis, Missouri. He was well connected to the history of our nation as he was the great-grandson of Silas Bent - the surveyor on the Louisiana Purchase. His great uncles, Robert and George Bent, built the fur-trading outpost known as Bent's Fort in what is now Colorado. His great uncle Charles Bent was the first Anglo governor of New Mexico Territory.

As a young teenager he followed Lewis & Clark's (and Silas Bent's) path up the Missouri River to Montana Territory where he scratched out his living as a cowboy. He lived a hard life and he started drawing, then painting, and then sculpting the wild, hard, rapidly disappearing ways of the Frontier.

His artistic abilities evolved from his very early years, when he lived with the feared Blackfoot Indians in Canada, to his later years when he traveled the gallery circuit in Europe. His years spanned that period of time from the raw frontier days of the Old West to the "Roaring 20's". He passed away in Great Falls, Montana in 1926, but he left behind an incredible record of our times and our history.

Opinions vary about who is or was the best or most popular American artist. Everyone seems to have their own parameters by which to judge. However, there is an Annual Art Show and Art Auction in Great Falls, Montana entitled "The Charles M. Russell Show and Sale." This event is, to our knowledge, the highest dollar value show and sale in the United States. And, works by Charles M. Russell bring upwards of $1,000,000.00 if any are offered at all. If the marketplace is any judge of an Artist's worth, then Charles M. Russell is probably America's favorite.