Mandan Warrior 1906

Charles M. Russell made this evocative watercolour of a Mandan Warrior sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. Just imagine Russell, dipping his brush into water, swirling the pigment, and then gingerly laying down these washes of colour. Look at how the scene emerges, the horse and rider painted with such delicate precision, yet there’s an ambiguity in the landscape, the beige earth meeting the pink sky in a blurry horizon line. I feel like Russell is trying to capture the essence of the West, not just its appearance, but also its atmosphere. The way he's painted the horse, those light washes of grey and white—it feels so alive, doesn’t it? And the warrior's headdress, like a crown of feathers, each one carefully rendered with a touch of the brush. You know, as painters, we’re always in conversation with the past. This image really reminds me of Delacroix and other painters who captured a sense of movement. We stand on their shoulders, inspired by their visions.