January 2019 44 Cowboy Charlie continued from page 43 young Russell mounted dead center of the Cowboy group on horseback and sitting in the forefront of a group of Cowboys sitting by a campfire. Even then Charlie Russell stood out - you can almost tell which Cowboy he was even if you didn't know what he actually looked like. But the golden age of the Cowboy was about to end. As much as Charlie loved the vastness of the open range, the fate of the open range and the cattle that grazed upon the land was tied up with the weather of the northern plains. In the summers of 1885 and 1886 there was a bad drought on the plains, and for the more experienced, the cold winds of fall warned of even worse terrors to come. The experienced cowhands first saw the beavers growing their winter fur in early fall, then hurriedly building up their dams and sanctuaries along the river bed. The next scene was the flight of the Arctic birds south from Canada, in late October and early November of that year, much earlier than anticipated. Then came the blizzards that either froze or caused thousands of cattle to die a horrific death as well as a few human beings that were caught out in the open or unable to get out of their cabins in the maelstrom of those late 1886 and early 1887 blizzards and storms. The extent of the devastation was such that a veteran Montana rancher and cattlemen, like Granville Stuart, who lost 66 percent of his vast herd finally accepted the reality of barbed wire and the closed range. As Stuart would later comment: "I never again wanted to own again an animal that I could not feed and shelter." Paradoxically, however, this disaster coupled with the end of the open range would jump-start the artistic career of Charlie Russell. At the time of the Montana blizzards, Russell was working as a cowhand at the OH ranch. He was approached by Jesse Phelps, the foreman of the ranch to submit a report to the absentee owners Kaufman and Stadler. Kaufman had heard of the decimation of Montana's cattle and he urgently requested firsthand knowledge of the extent of the disaster. Russell could barely write - remember his formal learning ended in early adolescence, and even if he could both he and the foreman were so upset at the extent of the loss that they couldn't convey in words the extent of the tragedy - so Russell quickly whipped out a postcard, grabbed some watercolors, and painted the scene of an emaciated cow about drop down in the snow surrounded by some obviously quite hungry wolves, entitled it "Waiting for a Chinook", (the warm winds) and sent it off to Kaufman. Kaufman was horrified by the extent of the disaster but he also recognized Russell's talent and had the postcard reprinted, and the Montana newspapers celebrated their new Cowboy artist, who at the time was just painting for friends and either practically giving the paintings and drawings away or selling them for pittance to local saloon owners and ranchers. Charlie would later expand that postcard to a painting and rename the original "Waiting for a Chinook" to "Last of the 5,000", but its impact and significance in the world of art, especially Cowboy art remains with us to this day. "Waiting for a Chinook" aka "The Last of the 5,000" made Charles Russell. Charlie was always sympathetic to the plight of the Native Americans and would remain so for the rest of his life. In the year following the Montana blizzards (1888) he would journey up to Canada in the late summer and spend the the remainder of the year and much of the next year with the Blood (Blackfoot) Indian tribe whom he had met and befriended in his earlier Montana stays, learning about their way of life and their traditional customs before returning to Cowboy life. The experience of living among his friends of the tribe would stay with him throughout his life and would be a direct influence many of his finest paintings, drawings, and sculpture. Returning to Montana he resumed the life of a Cowboy for the next several years riding the range. Charlie knew the times of the open range were gone, and he knew in his heart that the Old West he had known so briefly yet loved so well was also fast disappearing, so he began to concentrate more and more on his art, trying to paint and draw it before it was gone for good. Charlie's career as a working Cowboy came to an end in the fall of 1891 after paying a visit to a family friend, a prosperous rancher named William Niedringhaus. Niedringhaus had seen some of Russell's artwork, was quite impressed by it and commissioned the still relatively young soon- to-be-former-Cowboy to paint for him. When he went to work for Niedringhaus, there was no turning back for Charlie Russell, and his reputation grew. Still, he was unsure how to promote himself and ask a fair price for his already acclaimed artwork. Don't miss Part 2 in our February issue. In the beginning, before he became an artist, he was a cowpoke and never lost his Cowboy spirit. ...he painted, drew, and sculpted straight from the heart without any formal training whatsoever... 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. 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