The Hunting Party [No. 3] 1911

Charles M. Russell made this painting, The Hunting Party [No. 3], with oil paint and canvas. The overall palette is so warm – it's as if the colors were mixed with sunlight itself. You can see how each brushstroke is laid down with confidence; they build up a feeling of movement across the flat surface of the canvas. The dry brushwork in the foreground captures the texture of the grassy plain so well. There's a particular spot, right where the lead horse's front hooves meet the ground, where the paint is dabbed on in short, broken strokes. It's almost like the artist is saying: here, feel the weight of this animal, the energy of the hunt. The layering of the browns and golds makes the ground feel solid but also somehow fleeting, like a memory. Russell was influenced by earlier painters of the American West, like George Catlin, but he brings his own experience as a cowboy to his work. He invites us to see the West not just as a landscape, but as a place of action, of story, and of complex human relationships.