Page 158 - 2015 Russell Catalogue

212CHARLES M. RUSSELL (1864–1926)An Indian War Party, 1902watercolor7 x 7 3⁄4 inchesSigned “C.M. Russell,” lower left with bison skull trademarkExperts consider An Indian War Party a completely finished work rather than a study because the figures are surprisingly complicated. Watercolors comprised about one-third of Charles Russell’s oeuvre, numbering more than 1,100 works of art, not including the hundreds of illustrated letters, greeting cards, menus, and pen-and-ink drawings he created with touches of watercolor. In Romance Maker: The Watercolors of Charles M. Russell, art historian Rick Stewart explained that watercolors dominated Russell’s early work because he was more naturally gifted in the medium and the materials he needed were easier to get and use. Stewart wrote, “By the end of the 1890s, living and working in north-central Montana since the age of sixteen, Russell reached a pinnacle of achievement in the watercolor medium that few American artists of his time—many of them with years of formal training—ever managed to attain.”1Russell’s most productive period as a watercolorist followed. Created during the heyday of the artist’s production, An Indian War Party (1902) numbers among the 230 finished watercolors the artist painted from 1896 to 1909. Native American subjects dominated Russell’s output during this time, numbering 155 works, about 67 percent of his total production. This painting reflects the artist’s concern for historic details. By the 1890s, Charlie possessed a large collection of Indian artifacts, including clothing, weapons, pipes, and beadwork. Moreover, the Cowboy Artist claimed to be entirely knowledgeable about his Indian subjects, asserting that he had actually lived the life he painted, including time spent listening to and learning from the Blackfoot tribal elders.As he started work on this watercolor painting, Russell sketched the outlines of his composition in pencil directly on the paper. When studied closely, all the figures reveal some kind of drawing under the layers of wash. Compared to his early work in which the preliminary underdrawings appear fussy and labored, this painting demonstrates a more mature technique. The layers of wash and individual strokes of color in the landscape around the figures are notable for their freedom of execution and lightness of touch. The foreground displays a varied and almost abstract tapestry of color and brushstrokes in marked contrast to the figures themselves, which Russell rendered with careful detail. He lowered the horizon around his central figures to increase a sense of space and give his figures a greater feeling of monumentality. Russell used touches of pure opaque colors, including white, to render details and highlights that make the figures stand out. One figure in the background of the surrounding landscape is loosely rendered with thin washes and transparent strokes that suggest rather than define the form.$250,000–300,000Recorded in Charles M. Russell: A Catalogue Raisonné: CR.PC.134 PROVENANCE• James Moroney Incorporated, New York, NY• Martin Kodner, St. Louis, MO• Oklahoma Publishing Company, Oklahoma City, OK• Private Collection, TX________1Rick Stewart, Romance Maker: The Watercolors of Charles M. Russell (Fort Worth, TX: Amon Carter Museum of American Art, 2011), 12.