Captain Lewis Meeting the Shoshones 1903

Charles M. Russell painted ‘Captain Lewis Meeting the Shoshones’ in watercolour, and what strikes me first is how he’s captured the vastness of the landscape. The earthy palette feels expansive, mirroring the open plains where this meeting took place, a real process of immersion into place and history. Looking closer, you can see how the thin washes of watercolour allow the paper's texture to peek through, adding a kind of fragility. Notice the careful rendering of details of the figures and horses, with a contrast to the blurry treatment of the distant figures on the horizon, creating a sense of depth and distance. The colour is muted, but there is a lot of detail, look for the patterns on the horses, and the beads and tassels on the Shoshones clothes. The slightly awkward staging of the figures with the American flag makes you wonder about the complexities of cultural exchange and the weight of history, an event lost in time, painted by an artist who lived through more change than he could probably imagine. Like a forgotten snapshot, this piece reminds me of the ongoing dialogue between artists across generations.