ArizonaRealCountry.com 43 February 2019 Nancy Russell might have been a pretty face, but she had an iron soul and a solid streak of common sense. She quickly saw the importance of her new husband's art and noticed with dismay his penchant for giving many of his paintings away to old friends and drinking cronies. She immediately stressed to Charlie the importance of sticking to a work ethic, got him to stop practically all of his drinking bouts, and she demanded - and usually got - a good price for his artwork. In effect, she was both his romantic and his business partner. Charlie not only grew more confident in his work and trusting her business acumen, began making excellent profits on his art, but the almost illiterate Russell, under Nancy's tutelage, also gained confidence in his storytelling and in his writings about the old Montana Cowboy days. A formidable figure in her own right, Nancy Russell was a constant champion of her husband. Charlie always considered himself lucky in finding Nancy, she was a true soulmate for the three decades they were together. 1903 was a pivotal point in Russell's life and career relationship. In the fall of that year he and Nancy returned home to St. Louis, not to live but to visit the St. Louis World's Fair, and then ventured on to New York where he not only established himself as a prominent Western artist in many of the city's prestigious art galleries, he also made a number of new friends, including a lanky Cowboy-turned-humorist from Oklahoma named Will Rogers. The two were born storytellers and they almost instantly got along great. Rogers would remain a lifelong friend of the Cowboy artist from Montana, writing a typical Rogers' humorous yet also so poignant forward to Russell's posthumous Trails Plowed Under. The last two decades of Charlie Russell's life were his most productive. Not content to rest upon his painting laurels, Russell branched out into sculpture in 1904 but kept up a steady stream of paintings capturing the Montana and Old West he loved that by that time was passing before his eyes. He was an also in-demand artist for the publishing houses of New York, commissioned to do a special edition of Owen Wister's (another friend) "The Virginian", works by Emerson Hough, the noted naturalist George Bird Grinnell, Russell's old Montana friend Frank Linderman and others. With the passing of Remington on Christmas Day in 1909, Russell would, until his own passing be the unsurpassed "America's Cowboy Artist," not just a regional figure in the West but a major art figure worldwide. His exhibit "The West that has Passed" was the toast of art galleries in New York (1911), London (1914) and a growing Los Angeles where he would vacation as often as he could, visiting friends like Rogers, Douglas Fairbanks, Harry Carey Sr., and those Montana companions who chose to spend their sunset years along the sunny Santa Monica beach rather than in a plains snowstorm. Russell also tried to keep the Cowboy spirit alive outside of his artwork, being quite involved in the founding of the Calgary Stampede in 1912. Throughout it all, Russell maintained his homespun ways and his cheeky humor. In an April 20, 1914, illustrated letter from London depicting Russell doffing his cap to a Queen's guard on horseback, the Cowboy artist commented to old Montana crony Sid Willis: "Friend Sid, I went up to the Palace the other day where King Gorg camps . . .every thing was so quiet I think Gorg overslept that morning. .maby he was up late in a stud game. .aney I dident disturb him but took of my hat to the gard an let it go at that. . .its a sinch that Gorg will be sumed sore when he finds I pased with out calling. . .Those gards are about as fancy a bunch of bulls as I ever saw. . .all six footers riged in gold an polished steel. . .each rider stands at his post like a statue an if it hadent been for the twich of there horses I'd bet it was taxidurmist work" (Russell, ed. by Brian Dippie, Paper Talk, 1979, p. 109). A list of Russell's artwork would not just take at the minimum three or four more articles but in more likelihood a book in itself. So permit the writer's indulgence in mentioning what he considers a few more of Russell's most notable works besides"Waiting for a Chinook" plus the four Russell prints hanging proudly in various rooms of the Rockman "Hacienda": • "Cowboy Camp During the Round-Up" (1887) • "Indians Hunting Buffalo" (1894) • "The Hold-Up" (1899) • "In Without Knocking" (1909) • "When Horse Flesh Comes High" (1909) • "Buffalo Bill's Duel with Yellow Hand" (1917) And these last four prints proudly owned by the writer, all of which depict so well and so graphically real the life of the Cowboy: • "The Herd Quitter" (1897) • "The Strenuous Life" (1901) - (It was Theodore Roosevelt's inspiring 1899 speech of the same title that inspired Russell to create this painting of Cowboys riding broncs and roping steers). en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/The_Strenuous_Life • "Camp Cook's Trouble" (1912) • "Innocent Allies" (1913) By Alan Rockman In October 1895, as he put it “Cupid has bushwacked me” in the form of pretty, 17-year-old Nancy Cooper, who had been taken in by a friend of Russell’s — Ben Roberts — whom he was visiting. Charlie was 31, and was still, in many ways, the hard drinking and hard living Cowboy he had been. Nancy was 17 but down-to-earth and wise beyond her years. Russell fell for her, but to his surprise, she too had fallen for him despite his wayward ways. They married a year later and settled down in a large home in Great Falls, with a cabin attached where Russell could create his Western masterpieces. PART 2 Cowboy Charlie Russell Captured the Spirit of the Old West With His Paint Brush and His Sculpting Knife continued on page 44 In 1903, Russell met lanky Cowboy-turned-humorist from Oklahoma named Will Rogers. These two born storytellers would remain lifelong friends.