Charlie
Russell's Montana: he was the West's greatest
painter. |
Charlie Russell's Montana:
he was the West's greatest painter. Now you can explore
the land that inspired him - Travel.
Drive
U.S. 87 between Great Falls and Lewistown, Montana,
and you will see a landscape as unforgettable as
any in the West: a cloud-flecked bowl of blue sky,
the wide green plains, and the distant purple mountains--the
Highwoods, the Little Belts, and the Snowys.
A
magnificent landscape and strangely familiar, too,
for it inspired one of the greatest artists of the
American West: Charles Marion Russell. Over his
lifetime, Russell completed some 4,500 oils, watercolors,
sculptures, sketches, and illustrated letters. They
depicted the Native American tribes who were the
prairies' original inhabitants; explorers and fur
trappers; and, most memorably, the cowboys of the
open-range ranches, where Russell himself worked.
Today's Montana is changed.
Tepees have been replaced by missile silos, Native
American trails by highways driven by "skunk
wagons" (Russell's name for cars). Still, the
land's beauty abides. Trace Russell's path and you
will come to love the landscape that shaped his
life and art...You
can read more.
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