The Salute of the Robe Trade 1920

Charles M. Russell painted ‘The Salute of the Robe Trade’ with oils, and I can almost smell that medium right now. It’s full of warm sunset colors, like burnt orange and gold, painted pretty thinly across the surface of the canvas. I imagine Russell outside, on location, trying to capture the way light hits the landscape. I wonder if he was thinking about the actual trade, or the lives of the traders, while he was working on it? To be the one who puts down the first marks, and the last…that's something, right? Look at how he's rendered those figures on horseback – the brushstrokes are so loose, full of movement. You can practically feel the dust kicking up from the horses' hooves as they ride across the plains. These horses are the same as the horses in a Delacroix painting. Russell is referencing all the painters who came before him. Ultimately, painting is about making something new out of something old. It’s a never-ending process of trying, failing, and trying again. It reminds us there's always more than one way to see the world.