Page 104 - TheRussellCatalogue2016

135CHARLES M. RUSSELL (1864-1926)Water Girl [No. 1], c. 1892–1895[Water Girl; Indian Woman Carrying Water; Indian Woman By a River]watercolor on paper13 3⁄8 x 19 3⁄8 inchesSigned Ll: CM Russell/(skull)Water Girl [No. 1] portrays a Blackfoot woman standing at the edge of a stream, soaking up the sun while holding a blanket over her head with both hands to shade her eyes. A second woman carrying a baby kneels alongside the rst gure, lling a water vessel in the stream. A third woman in the distance is hauling water vessels from the stream toward an encampment with four tipis visible on the horizon. is fully realized composition is an excellent example of Charles Marion Russell’s early gurative works. As Russell started work on this watercolor painting, he sketched the outlines of his arrangement in pencil directly on the paper. When studied closely, the gures reveal some kind of drawing under the layers of wash. e layers of wash and individual strokes of color in the landscape around the gures are notable for their freedom of execution and lightness of touch. e foreground displays re ections in the stream that resemble an abstract tapestry of color and brushstrokes in marked contrast to the gures, which Russell rendered with careful detail.Unlike his warrior portraits, in this painting, he raised the horizon around the central gure to limit the sense of space and create intimacy for his female subjects. Russell uses touches of pure opaque colors, including white, to render details and highlights that make the gures stand out. e gure in the background is loosely rendered with thin washes and transparent strokes that suggest rather than de ne the form.Russell abandoned the cowboy life in 1893, about the time he painted this work, when he started painting full time in Great Falls and Cascade, Montana. William F. Niedringhaus of St. Louis provided an important commission to help launch Russell’s career. e quality of Russell’s early works and the authenticity of his Montana scenes are evidenced by the presence of two C.M. Russell paintings in the Montana Pavilion at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Further recognition came from the Art Union in St. Louis, which awarded Russell a one-man show in 1895.Water Girl [No. 1] is not known to have been displayed in these important exhibitions; however, it was exhibited at Chas. Schatzlein Paint Store in Butte, Montana. Considered Russell’s rst art dealer, Schatzlein was the rst to make a business of selling the Cowboy Artist’s work an ongoing activity. Some sense of the environment surrounding Schatzlein’s personal collection comes from William B. Cameron, who visited Butte in May 1897. Cameron was there to drum up business for a new sportsman’s journal published out of St. Paul, Minnesota, titled Western Field and Stream. e salesman encountered something unexpected when he arrived at his hotel: paintings in the lobby that “in brilliance of coloring and execution topped anything of the kind... I had ever before seen.”$250,000–325,000Recorded in Charles M. Russell: A Catalogue Raisonnė: CR.PC.307• Private Collection, Florida EXHIBITION• Chas. Schatzlein Paint Company, Butte, Montana, n.d.PROVENANCE