Charlie Russell Black and White Mural

The Charlie Russell Mural is one of three black and white murals in Great Falls, all honoring community leaders. The mural was created by Andrew Fowler and Jim DeStaffany. Charles M. Russell is one of the foremost Western artists of the 20th century and is honored here for making Great Falls his home for many years. You can see Russell's work and that of other western artists at the C. M. Russell Museum at 400 13th Street North.

The mural of Charlie Russell was sparked by a newspaper article about Jim DeStaffany’s Clydesdales mural in Conrad, Montana. Mayor Bob Kelly traveled to Conrad to meet with DeStaffany. Kelly went to the Downtown Development Partnership to make a pitch for the project funding, which was approved. The Russell Museum approved the use of Russell's likeness for the mural, which was installed in 2016. Charles Marion Russell (March 19, 1864 – October 24, 1926), also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an American artist of the American Old West. He created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Native Americans, and landscapes set in the western United States and in Alberta, Canada, in addition to bronze sculptures. He is known as "the cowboy artist" and was also a storyteller and author. He became an advocate for Native Americans in the west, supporting the bid by landless Chippewa to have a reservation established for them in Montana. In 1916, Congress passed legislation to create the Rocky Boy Reservation. The C. M. Russell Museum Complex in Great Falls, Montana houses more than 2,000 Russell artworks, personal objects, and artifacts. Other major collections are held at the Montana Historical Society in Helena, Montana, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Sid Richardson Museum in Fort Worth. His mural Lewis and Clark Meeting the Flathead Indians hangs in the state capitol building in Helena, and his 1918 painting "Piegans" sold for $5.6 million at a 2005 auction. In 1955, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.

Great Flls Tribune Feb 19, 2016

wikipedia, 7/21/2022