To the Victor Belong the Spoils 1901

Charles M. Russell made this landscape, 'To the Victor Belong the Spoils', with oil paints and a whole load of drama. The painting feels kind of epic, and it's got this palette of dusky purples and browns that makes you think of twilight and wilderness. Looking closely, the bear in the foreground is painted with these really chunky strokes, like Russell was wrestling the paint into shape. There’s this raw, tactile quality to the fur; you can almost feel the weight of it. And the wolves lurking in the shadows are all sly angles and sharp lines. It feels like Russell's work has a nod to the Hudson River School painters. But while they were all about grandeur, Russell's got this grittier, more animalistic edge. It's a scene of survival and instinct, where beauty and brutality go hand in hand. It doesn't shy away from ambiguity; it celebrates it.