C.M. Russell Museum
400 13th St N
Great Falls, MT
The home and log-cabin studio of Charlie Russell, the wrangler who became the West's own storyteller in paint.
Charles Marion Russell came to Montana as a teenager in 1880, worked as a wrangler and night herder through the last open-range years, and taught himself to paint the world he was watching disappear. By the time he died in 1926 he was one of the most beloved artists in America, the man who gave the cattle West its enduring pictures, and he did nearly all of it in Great Falls.
The C.M. Russell Museum grew up around the small log studio he built beside his home, a rough-timbered room he filled with saddles, buffalo skulls, beaded Native work, and cowboy gear so he could paint from the real thing. Today the museum holds one of the finest collections of his paintings, drawings, and bronzes anywhere, alongside the preserved house and studio where he made them.
What Guests Love
- Standing inside Russell's actual log-cabin studio, hung with the gear and skulls he painted from
- A deep collection of his paintings, sketches, and small bronzes in one place
- The stories behind the art, from a self-taught cowhand who lived what he painted
- The adjoining original home where he and his wife Nancy lived and worked
Worth Knowing
- Give yourself real time; this is a substantial art museum, not a quick photo stop
- The complex includes the museum galleries plus the historic house and log studio next door
- It is indoors, an ideal stop in cold or stormy weather
- The annual Western art auction weekend, The Russell, draws crowds each spring
Details
Great Falls, MT
Learn about C.M. Russell Museum
The cowboy who became an artist
Russell was a restless St. Louis boy who headed west at fifteen and never really left. He spent about a decade as a working cowhand in central Montana, riding for outfits during the great open-range era, and he sketched and modeled constantly, often giving away pictures for the price of a drink or a favor. The winter of 1886 to 1887, which killed vast numbers of cattle, made him briefly famous when a tiny watercolor he sent his boss, showing a starving steer, said more than any letter could.
He was self-taught and stayed that way, never much interested in formal training. His gift was accuracy and affection, the way he got the light of the high plains, the set of a rider in the saddle, and the dignity of the Native peoples he knew and admired. His wife, Nancy, became his shrewd business manager and pushed his work into galleries and eventually before wealthy collectors back east.
The log studio and the house
In 1903 Russell built a telephone-pole log studio next to the family home in Great Falls, and it became the heart of his working life. He hung it with the tools of his subjects, cowboy tack, Native clothing and beadwork, rifles, and animal skulls, and painted surrounded by the physical West he was recording.
Both the studio and the adjoining house survive as part of the museum, so you can step from a modern gallery into the actual room where the paintings were made. It is a rare thing, to see the finished masterworks and then the cluttered, smoke-darkened space that produced them.
The collection and his lasting West
The museum galleries hold a broad sweep of Russell's output, oil paintings of buffalo hunts and cattle drives, watercolors, pen-and-ink letters illustrated in the margins, and his lively small bronzes. Together they amount to one of the great collections of Western American art, deepened by works from his contemporaries and by Native artists.
Russell mattered because he painted the West from the inside, with humor and respect rather than romance alone, and because he mourned its passing honestly. Great Falls celebrates him each spring with The Russell, a major Western art sale, but any day of the year the museum offers the fullest portrait of the man Montanans simply call Charlie.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Great Falls
Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center
About 3 miles
A riverside center telling the Corps of Discovery's grueling portage around the Great Falls of the Missouri.
Giant Springs State Park
About 3 miles
One of the largest freshwater springs in the country, feeding the short Roe River, on the Missouri riverbank.
River's Edge Trail
About 2 miles
A long paved and singletrack path along the Missouri past several of the falls that name the city.
First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park
About 15 miles
One of the largest bison cliff jumps in North America, used by Native hunters for centuries.