Fighting Meat

Charles Marion Russell earned his reputation as "the Cowboy Artist" for his dynamic action pictures, based on his intimate knowledge and appreciation of frontier life, first working as a horse wrangler and then as a cowboy. Born in 1864 in St. Louis, Missouri, Russell grew up reading James Fenimore Cooper's novels of the frontier and the numerous dime store westerns, dreaming of living the life of a cowboy. At the age of fifteen, his parents, frustrated by the boy's poor academic record and frequent truancy, arranged a trip to Montana, hoping that a summer out West would instill direction and discipline. Much to his parents' disappointment, however, Russell never came back. In coming to and ultimately settling in this new territory, Russell selected a lifestyle that varied markedly from the privileged world into which he had been born in St. Louis.

St. Louis, MO, USA