Page 168 - 2015 Russell Catalogue

226CHARLES M. RUSSELL (1864–1926)The Battle between the Blackfeet and Piegans [Battle between the Blackfeet and The Piegans; Indian Fight; The Battle], 1897 watercolor and pencil on paper14 3⁄4 x 21 1⁄4 inchesSigned “C.M. Russell,” lower left with bison skull trademarkBeginning in the 1890s, Charlie Russell developed two approaches to painting intertribal conflicts. One involved depictions of running fights with riders clashing at full gallop. His other tactic was to show a dismounted warrior making a desperate stand against a charging enemy. The 1897 watercolor known under the improbable title The Battle Between the Blackfeet and the Piegans is a fine example of Russell’s depiction of a running fight. It is an accomplished work in how it captures a sense of motion and action in the watercolor medium. The title is suspect, because the Blackfeet and the Piegans are both members of the Blackfoot Confederacy, and thus are not known to have engaged in pitched battle.Montana’s legendary Cowboy Artist heard stories of the Blackfoot Confederacy firsthand while he idled away the summer of 1888 in Alberta, Canada. Too late for the spring roundup, too early for the fall roundup, Russell did just fine loafing with a friend on a ranch near High River, fishing and visiting and enjoying himself. But it wasn’t really an idle summer. The ranch was located between the Blackfoot reserve to the north and the Piegan and Blood reserves to the south,and the visiting had a purpose. The artist spent hours listening to old warriors from the three Blackfoot tribes recount their youthful exploits. They told of daring deeds and honors won back when the land still belonged to God––and the Blackfeet, Sioux, and Crow. Russell’s imagination was set ablaze by what he heard. He had arrived in Montana in 1880, an impressionable teenager from St. Louis, just in time to witness the passing of the Old West and the twilight of Plains Indian glory. In Alberta in 1888, the young artist eagerly soaked up the lore of buffalo hunts and village life and battles long ago.The Battle Between the Blackfeet and the Piegans was painted in 1897, a heady time in the life of the young artist. Charlie had married Nancy Cooper in 1896, and the newlyweds spent the winter living in Russell’s one-room shack in Cascade, MT. With income received for illustrating stories in Recreation, Western Field and Stream, and Sports Afield magazines, the young couple moved to Great Falls during the summer of 1897. The national exposure that Russell received from illustrating Emerson Hough’s The Story of the Cowboy (1897) generated an opportunity for the artist to exhibit four watercolors at the Macbeth Galleries in New York. While not chosen for the exhibition, The Battle Between the Blackfeet and the Piegans was one of several watercolors Russell produced in preparing works for consideration by the gallery.$275,000–375,000Recorded in Charles M. Russell: A Catalogue Raisonné: CR.BBH.6Brian W. Dippie Professor Emeritus of History University of Victoria, British Columbia