In 1903 the famed “Cowboy Artist,” Charles M. Russell, presented his nephew Austin with a copy of the boy’s adventure book Frank on the Prairie with some extraordinary enhancements. Actually, the volume already belonged to Austin, and his Uncle Charlie had borrowed it to add to its pages a series of original illustrations. This new facsimile edition of that copy, among the rarest of rare books, features little-known works of art by the artist. The prolific author of the novel Frank on the Prairie, Charles Austin Fosdick (1842–1915), who went by the pen name Harry Castlemon, was one of Russell’s favorite storytellers. Castlemon’s book, which first appeared in 1868 as part of the Gunboat Series of Books for Boys, recounts the adventures of young Frank and his friend Archie as they travel across the Old West. Clearly inspired by the story line, Russell produced eleven watercolors for his nephew’s 1893 copy. They are beautifully reproduced here in full color, along with a single pencil sketch of mounted horsemen departing a fort. As Montana art collector Thomas Minckler explains in his essay, the extra-illustrated Frank on the Prairie displays the full range of Russell’s signature subjects and themes: the regal American Indian, a pitched Indian battle of counting coup, the fur trader, an iconic buffalo hunt, the outlaw, a nighttime camp scene, a tomahawk peace pipe, and a herd of wild horses. All of these images, meticulously drawn and painted, are replicated in this facsimile version exactly as they first appeared in Austin’s personal copy of the book. Frank on the Prairie was only one of a handful of books to which Russell added illustrations during his career. It is one of even fewer to contain watercolors. Showcasing Russell’s artistry and his perspective on the American West, the volume is, in Minckler’s words, “one of Russell’s most personalized works of art.”

Frank on the Prairie

Arts & Photography

Castlemon, Harry

Individual Artists

Charles M. Russell Museum

Charles M. Russell has long been recognized for his action-packed paintings, drawings, and sculpture of cowboys, fur trappers, Native American buffalo hunters and warriors, and other heroes of the Old West. Russell’s best-known works capture the excitement and deadly risk of men battling nature and one another in a majestic landscape of mountains and plains. Less well known are Russell’s hundreds of depictions of western women. As renowned author and art historian Ginger K. Renner observed thirty-five years ago, no other artist of the West devoted more of his time and talent to the portrayal of women. But few have followed Renner’s lead—until now. Lavishly illustrated with full-color illustrations, Charles M. Russell: The Women in His Life and Art presents groundbreaking essays essential to understanding the role of western women in Russell’s art. This volume is both a tribute to the women who nurtured Russell’s artistic development and a landmark in the study of the role of women in a genre all too often identified almost exclusively with a masculine world. The catalogue essays examine the exhibition’s theme from four unique perspectives. Joan Carpenter Troccoli provides an overview of the works in the exhibition and the social, cultural, and personal values that influenced them. Emily Crawford Wilson explores Russell’s interest in the feminine ideal, tying it to wider artistic trends of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Jennifer Bottomly-O’looney describes Russell’s friendship with Ben and Lela Roberts, who introduced the artist to Nancy Cooper, the woman who would become his wife and indispensable business partner. Thomas A. Petrie employs extended excerpts from Nancy’s unpublished biographical memoir to illuminate the Russells’ marriage, a relationship sustained by affection and mutual respect, as well as shrewd creative and marketing decisions.

Charles M. Russell: The Women in His Life and Art

From his days spent on the open range of Montana, Russell was drawn to depicting the life and history of the American West. In 1912 and again in 1919, the charismatic Wild West showman and rodeo promoter Guy Weadick sought out Russell as a major exhibitor and headliner to help promote the fledgling “Stampede” rodeo in Calgary, Alberta. The weeklong run of events and exhibits was designed to commemorate the values and people of the Old West, then rapidly changing from a way of life in North America to the stuff of memory, legend, and sport. By celebrating old-timers, pioneers, ranching, cowboying, and indigenous traditions, the Stampede delivered the “West that had passed”—a theme central to Russell’s work as an artist—to popular audiences across Canada. The special 1919 Calgary event was branded the Victory Stampede in honor of the troops returning home from the Great War overseas and in celebration of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Return to Calgary: Charles M. Russell and the 1919 Victory Stampede richly illustrates all twenty-four paintings and eight bronzes included in the historic 1919 special exhibition of Russell’s work at Victoria Park in Calgary.

Return to Calgary: Charles M. Russell and the 1919 Victory Stampede (Frederic G. and Ginger K. Renner Research Center Series)

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Charles M. Russell Museum publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Charles M. Russell Museum

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Charles M. Russell Museum publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Frank on the Prairie

Charles M. Russell: The Women in His Life and Art

Return to Calgary: Charles M. Russell and the 1919 Victory Stampede (Frederic G. and Ginger K. Renner Research Center Series)