Customer Reviews

Charles M. Russell, Word Painter: Letters 1887-1926

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Besides creating hundreds of pen & ink illustrations, watercolors, oil paintings, sculptures, and short stories, C.M. Russell also produced around 500 illustrated letters, some of which have been collected previously in the books "Good Medicine" and two editions of "Paper Talk." Dippie's "Word Painter" collects Russell's letters produced between 1887 and 1926, falling a little short of 400 pieces of correspondence.

Russell was not a born writer. He struggled with spelling, syntax, and penmanship. The scrawl that surrounds his miniature sketches and watercolors has none of the apparent ease of his pictorial line. Yet it's clear from his letters that part of his struggle is in finding the right word, which is the labor of the dedicated wordsmith. In his introduction to "Good Medicine," Will Rogers argued that a recipient of a Russell letter cherished the prose more than the accompanying illustration. That may be a bit of overstatement, but the words were surely equal to the pictures. Responding to a birthday card from Josephine Trigg, the aging artist writes: "Old Dad Time trades little that men want he has traded me wrinkels for teeth stiff legs for limber ones but cards like yours tell me that he has left me my friends and for that great kindness I forgive him." Grammar and punctuation could be added to that, but it could not improve it.

Russell's letters contain some of his most spontaneous and heartfelt artistry, where words and pictures combine to express his despair over the encroachment of real estate "development," or to let loose with a humorous observation or anecdote that belies the frown seen in so many of his formal portraits.

Dippie's volume is not only a portable museum of Russell's correspondence, but also of Russell's family, friends, and the times which influenced and shaped the man and his work. This is an indispensable collection for any enthusiast of this artist or of western art in general. Though some of the reproductions are small, the color reproduction is a big improvement over "Good Medicine" and "Paper Talk."

Russell's masterpieces may be the watercolors and oils that hang in museums and private collections, but the priceless heart and wit of the artist lives on in these letters.