Remington/Russell - RW Norton Art Gallery

Charles Russell
Charles Russell
Russell Watercolor
Gallery
Russell's paintings provide rare
insight into the domestic life of
Native Americans. In Indian Beauty
Parlor, we see a morning ritual of
the Blackfoot tribe. Russell was
made an honorary son of this tribe
and spent several summers observIndian Beauty
ing and recording the details of their
Parlor
culture.
1899
With the Great Buffalo Hunts of
1881-1882, the Native Americans
faced starvation and death. Russell
grew frustrated by the treatment of
the Indians, and was confused that
the white settlers, who would gladly
The Talk Paper help out a neighbor in need, seemed
1901
perfectly capable of letting a whole
race of people starve. The Talk Paper, depicts a small Indian hunting
party presenting their paperwork
to an officer. The tribes that once
Three Wise Men roamed free now needed permision
to leave the reservation.
1920
The Three Wise Men is one of the
rare instances where Russell deviated from the western theme. He was
once asked the question: “What do
you think about that whole religion
thing?” Living up to the cowboy
way and being a man of few words,
he shrugged. In response, he drew
three separate watercolors of The
Three Wise Men.
Entering the Russell Oil Gallery,
Self Portrait
a
Self
Portrait of Charlie Russell
1899
himself hangs to your right. When
Horses Turn Back, There's Danger Ahead depicts an event from
Russell's annual hunting excursion.
The composition is very clever as
the viewer's eye is drawn first to the
panicking horses, and secondly to
When Horses
Turn Back,
the large bear. Sharp eyed viewers
There's Danger will notice a second bear lurking
Ahead
behind the debris.
1922
Russell Oil Gallery
trapper's last
stand, detail
1899
Painting
the Town
meat for
wild men
1920
It Aint' No Lady's
Job
1929
It Aint' No Lady's
Job, Detail
1929
Trapper's Last Stand is one of Russell's largest works. Though self trained
as an artist, Russell uses many complicated techniques to compose this painting, including the element of foreshortening, which keeps the viewer in the
sites of the rifle-wielding cowboy at all
times. This painting is drawn from the
Native American perspective (which
is why the cowboy is aiming directly
at the viewer). The plight of Indians
wasn't debated or questioned in America until 1960, and very few questioned
the treatment of Native Americans
in the 19th century. This makes Russell unique among the westerners and
Cowboy artists of his time.
Russell was also a gifted sculptor.
Always appealing to Russell was the
shenanigans indulged in by cowboys
whenever they had a chance to leave
the range and go to a town with its irresistible temptations of women, whiskey, and gambling. Boredom could be
dispelled quickly, but only at the expense of some of the more quiet and
peaceful residents, such as Chinese
laundrymen in Painting the Town.
Meat for Wild Men is considered
to be Russell's masterpiece in bronze.
Warring tribes would call a truce and
converge to hunt 40,000 buffalo. The
rumbling of the earth and the excitement of the hunt made this event one
of Russell's favorite to depict. He was
never one to romanticize or forget the
innocence that is often lost in dramatic
endeavors: on the side of the statue, we
see a calf getting trampled in the fray.
It Ain't No Lady's Job is Russell's last
sculpture, intended to be a Christmas
gift for his wife Nancy. Even unfinished, one can imagine the strength it
would take to handle a team of 6 horses. With all those reins to manage, it's
not a job for a lady.
The
Remington/
Russell
Self-Guided Tour
"Arrival of a Courier"
Frederic Remington
"Fleecing the Priest"
Charles Russell
The R.W. Norton Art Gallery
4747 Creswell Ave
Shreveport, Louisiana 71106
318-865-4201
www.rwnaf.org
Frederic Remington
Frederic Remington
The Bierstadt Gallery
Bronco
buster
1895
The
Rattlesnake
1905
Mountain
Man
1903
Coming
through the
Rye
1902
Frederic Remington was born in 1861
into a fairly wealthy family. It was only
later in life that he began to sculpt. He
was already a successful illustrator and
painter when one friend commented that
since he had such an eye for composition and storytelling, he should try his
hand at sculpting. Remington, having
never sculpted before, agreed, and his
first work astounded everyone.
Remington’s Bronco Buster, his
first and arguably most famous statue,
earned him instant respect from critics and other sculptors alike. What is
extraordinary about this statue is its
balance. The horse is rearing on his
two hind legs, supporting both the
weight of the rider and the horse itself.
By all rights, this horse should simply
tip over, nose first. It is Remington’s
extraordinary sculpting skill that keeps
this horse balanced.
Remington was soon introduced to
the lost wax method of casting which
enables the artist to touch and retouch
the sculpture just before it is cast, adding different artistic variations and
making each piece utterly unique. With
The Rattlesnake , Remington moved the
little wax snake several times, delighting in the creative control.
In addition to being an undisputed
master in balancing his works, Remington was also known for his unique,
innovative bases for his sculptures.
Here in Mountain Man, for example, the
steep crag is an important element in the
narrative drama of the piece.
Inspired by cowboys and their Saturday night escapades, Coming Through
the Rye was exhibited in plaster at the
Louisiana Purchase Exhibition in St.
Louis in 1904. The entire work is balanced on only seven points and the end
horse is completely suspended.
Frederic Remington
Frederic Remington Gallery
We Struck
Some Boggy
Ground
1896
Old Smoke
Twilight of
the Indian
1897
The Famine
1890
Hiawatha's
Lamentation
1890
Don't
Nobody Hurt
Anybody said
Speciman
Jones
1890
In 1885 Remington landed his first
Harper’s Weekly cover illustration and it
was the beginning of a mutually beneficial
relationship. Illustrations were done in
black and white so that they could be best
reproduced in print. Remington worked
almost exclusively in black and white for
a lot of his career. We Struck Some Boggy
Ground was an illustration for a story
Remington wrote about Texas Rangers
leading an attack on an Indian village in
1858. Remington drew what he wanted
the West to be: a romanticized, nostalgic
place where Indians were savages and
cowboys ride in to save the day. It was
Remington who gave pictorial form to
the icon of the “Noble Savage:” strong,
silent, and proud, as can be seen in the
sketch Old Smoke. Remington was more
interested in expressing the notion or
idea of a wild man, rather than accurately
depicting an actual Native American. To
do so would humanize them and thus destroy the western mythology he worked so
hard to create. However, once the frontier
closed in 1890 and Indians were no longer
considered a threat to American progress,
Remington could not resist or deny a feeling of nostalgia for what was happening
to a nomadic, warrior culture. Twilight of
the Indian is Remington's homage to a
vanquished culture.
Remington was a prolific artist who
often threw himself into his work wholeheartedly. He completed over 400 illustrations and 22 oil paintings for Longfellow's
epic poem The Song of Hiawatha, including The Famine and Hiawatha's Lamentation. In 1893, Remington met up with
author Owen Wister, who specialized in
the Western genre. They collaborated to
write and illustrate stories for Harper’s
Monthly and Harper’s Weekly. One of his
most difficult illustrations was Don't Hurt
Nobody...for a political thriller by Wister.
Frederic Remington Gallery
Calling the
moose
1901
Arrival of a
Courier,
1890
Because he struggled with color (and
was often lambasted by critics for his
palette choices), Remington decided to
start by challenging himself to do the
most difficult of oil paintings: nocturnes.
A nocturne is a painting depicting a scene
at either sunrise or sunset, and is one of
the most difficult times of day for an artist to render, as can be seen with Calling
the Moose.
Remington was so influential on the
way Americans thought about the west
that he inspired not only his own generation, but the generations after him. One
of Oscar winning director John Ford’s
greatest feats was using a Remington
painting to establish every scene in his
movie She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, including Arrival of a Courier. When you
picture the Wild West, you are sharing
Remington's vision.
Charles Russell
Russell Watercolor Gallery
While Frederic Remington strove for the
dramatic and romanticized, Charles Russell labored for a reflection of the west as
he was seeing it and living it. Born in St.
Louis, Russell ran away from military
school at the age of 16 to become a Montana cowboy. Self-taught as an artist, he
passed the time on the range by drawing
on anything he could get his hands on,
including pieces of birch bark, as seen
in his Thank You Note to Bill. He even
signed the note with his trademarked (and
Thank you
note to Bill, copyrighted) buffalo skull.
1909
Being a cowboy was a hard, boring,
dirty job and it was Charlie’s sense of
humor that got him through most days.
The poem in the corner of Fleecing the
Priest drolly reasons: Money is the root
of all evil./We don’t want the preacher
Fleecing the to be evil/ So we’re going to do him the
favor of removing the temptation by takPriest
1915
ing his money.