Native North American Peoples - General & Miscellaneous, Native North American Peoples - Art & Artifacts, Regionalism & American Scene Painting, Museum & Collection Catalogs, General & Miscellaneous Sculpture, Portrait Photography - General & Miscellaneou
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Overview
Charles M. Russell (1864-1926), one of the best-loved artists of the American West, was as skillful in sculpture as he was with paint and pen. Throughout his life he modeled wax animals and clay and plaster figures for his friends and family, but in the last twenty years of his career Russell also created forty-six more formal works for casting in bronze.This study is the first comprehensive examination of Russell's work as a sculptor. With reproductions not only of Russell's bronzes but of many of his painted wax and plaster models, this is an essential volume for connoisseurs and collectors of western art and for those who simply admire Russell's work.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Missouri-born Russell (1864-1926), who settled on the Montana plains, is justly famous as a painter of the American West, yet his boldly expressive sculpture is less well known. This lavishly illustrated study reveals a master of depicting dramatic action, whether the subject is a bronco rider, an Indian buffalo hunt or two rams fighting on the edge of a rocky cliff. Russell's painted plaster portrait busts of Navajo and Blackfeet men and women convey dignity and soulfulness. His powerful bronzes of buffalo, grizzly bears and Rocky Mountain sheep reflect his concern for the preservation of wild species. Besides bronzes, he also made painted wax and plaster models of wildlife, remarkable for their empathy and wealth of detail; comic caricatures of cowboys and drunks; and exquisite miniatures of medieval knights in armor and Saharan camels with their riders. Stewart, a curator at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth (which houses the complete set of Russell's bronzes), provides an informal biographical-critical essay and commentaries on the 425 plates (125 in color). (Jan.)Library Journal
The biography and artistic career of the American Western and nature artist Russell (1864-1926), who recorded a way of life that was fast disappearing, rates only two chapters in this book. Stewart instead highlights what is in many ways of greater interest: the authorized and unauthorized marketing of Russell's commercial art (high-priced casts in the form of tabletop sculpture, bookends, and ash trays) by his wife and business manager Nancy Cooper Russell and others after his death. The Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth houses the only complete collection of sculptures that Russell intended to be cast in bronze, here presented in rich detail by the museum's curator of Western painting and sculpture. The appendixes consist of historical lists that help sort lifetime from posthumous casts. Of particular interest to scholars and researchers who need to document specific sculptures.-Kathleen Eagen Johnson, Historic Hudson Valley, Tarrytown, N.Y.Book Details
Published
October 1, 1994
Publisher
Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
Pages
400
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780810937727