Exhibitions

R. Tom Gilleon, a master of composition and color, reimagines classic Western themes with vibrant, innovative style. Inner Light: The Art of Tom Gilleon showcases works from his early Disney Imagineer days, oil paintings, and latest digital pieces. On view at the C.M. Russell Museum through through March 2025.

Slow Bull’s Eye, 2020,
oil on canvas, 50 x 40 in.

Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied and Karl Bodmer explored the Upper Missouri River, with Bodmer’s detailed sketches later published in Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-1834. This exhibition showcases Bodmer’s prints from the expedition, highlighting the cross-cultural exchanges between Euro-Americans and Indigenous peoples in the 19th-century American West. On view at the C.M. Russell Museum through December 23, 2024.

Bison Dance of the Mandan Indians
in front of their Medicine Lodge
detail, engraving ca. 1834,
On loan from Larry Alan Larson and
Gail Larson
L2024.1.2

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, photography emerged as a tool for documenting cultures, histories, and identities. Capturing the West explores how Joseph Henry Sharp and Edward S. Curtis used photography to document the people of Montana, both as an art form and reference. On view at the C.M. Russell Museum through January 2025.

Top: Joseph Henry Sharp, Man Helping
Child with Regalia, detail, n.d.,
photopolymer gravure, museum purchase,
2020.1.16

Bottom: Edward Sheriff Curtis, 
Village of the Kalispell, detail, n.d.,
photogravure, Gift of Robert Sciver
984-12-29

By the early 1900s, Charles Russell was the highest-paid living artist, leading to a market flooded with replicas and forgeries. This exhibition explores the authentication of several “Russell” works in our collection proven to be fakes. While the C.M. Russell Museum doesn’t authenticate or appraise art, the exhibit offers tips to help you ask, “Is this a Real Russell?” On view at the C.M. Russell Museum through December 23, 2024.

Reproduction of When Horse
Flesh Comes High

Permanent Exhibition: The Russell Legacy Galleries have been dedicated to Tom and Jane Petrie to celebrate their lifelong dedication to collecting and preserving the American West through art. Spanning all mediums and subject matter of Russell’s work, the art spotlighted in A Collectors Vision has been donated or lent to the C.M. Russell Museum from Petrie’s private collection so that everyone can experience the legacy of Charles M. Russell. Pieces from The Collector’s Vision will be on display through September 2025.

Charles M. Russell (1864-1926),
The Kindergarten, detail, 1890,
oil on canvas, On loan from the
Petrie Collection
L2022.5.1

Permanent Exhibition: The exhibit “Before the Cowboy Artist” explores Charles M. Russell’s early artistic development, from his childhood in St. Louis to the early 1900s. By showcasing his early works, visitors can trace the evolution of his style and gain insight into the influences that shaped his legacy as Montana’s famed “Cowboy Artist.”

Permanent Exhibition: Firearms were central to the American West, used by many and shaped by major manufacturers and individual makers. At the heart of this legacy stands the Browning family, whose innovations transformed firearms design and culture. This exhibition highlights the Browning family’s impact on the firearms industry and explores how firearms influenced public memory and mythologies of the Old West.

Permanent Exhibition: The C.M. Russell Museum, in partnership with the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame, presents Tales from the Saddle: Come Ride Along, an interactive gallery exploring the evolving West, where the horse remained a constant. Future exhibits will highlight pioneer women, diverse cultures, and changing Western ways of life.

Permanent Exhibition: The Josephine Trigg Collection showcases the Trigg family’s lifetime collection of Charles Russell’s gifts, including drawings, poems, letters, watercolors, oils, and sculptures, along with personal items. The exhibition covers the Trigg family’s history, their relationship with the Russells, and the creation of the CMRM complex and Trigg gallery.

Letter to Friend Trigg
953-1-52

Permanent Exhibition: Bison: American Icon, Heart of Plains Indian Culture features over 1,000 Northern Plains Indian artifacts, including clothing, regalia, tools, weapons, and artwork. This exhibition, part of the museum’s permanent collection, explores the bison’s historical and cultural significance from 1800 to 2008 and its evolution as an American icon.

Permanent Exhibition: Though Russell’s work is featured nationwide, the C.M. Russell Museum uniquely connects visitors to him as an artist, husband, and friend. The museum includes his studio, the home he shared with Nancy, and interactive exhibits that offer an intimate glimpse into their life and partnership.

Permanent Exhibition: The Russell Riders Sculpture Garden, launched in July 2012 by the Charlie Russell Riders Foundation, showcases major bronzes of western wildlife. Expanded and reimagined, the garden reopened in 2021 with sculptures in new locations.