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 Thomas A. Petrie employs extended excerpts from Nancy’s unpublished biographical memoir to illuminate the Russells’ marriage, a relationship sustained by affection and mutual respect, as well as shrewd creative and marketing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.
Joan Carpenter Troccoli retired as Senior Scholar of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art of the Denver Art Museum in June 2012. She is the Founding Director of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art, Denver Art Museum, a position in which she served from 2001-05. From 1996-2001, she was Deputy Director of the Denver Art Museum. Before coming to Denver in 1995, she was a Curator of Art and subsequently Director of Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She holds a B. A. from Middlebury College and master's and doctoral degrees from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
Brian W. Dippie is retired as Professor of History at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. The leading authority on Russell, he is the author of numerous books and articles on the history and art of the American West, including The Vanishing American: White Attitudes and U.S. Indian Policy and Charles M. Russell: Word Painter.
Thomas A. Petrie, CFA, is Chairman of Petrie Partners, LLC, in Denver. He formerly served as Vice Chairman of Bank of America/Merrill Lynch and was Vice Chairman of Merrill Lynch until its acquisition by Bank of America in 2009. Petrie co-founded Petrie Parkman & Co., a Denver- and Houston-based energy investment banking firm that merged with Merrill Lynch in 2006. Petrie graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and earned an MSBA (Finance) from Boston University. The Colorado School of Mines bestowed on him an honorary doctorate of engineering.
