Buffalo Herd at Bay 1901

"Buffalo Herd at Bay" was painted in 1901 by Charles M. Russell. I can imagine him in his studio carefully layering the watercolors to build up this scene of tension in the Wild West. The painting captures a small group of buffalo cornered on a rocky hillside by a pack of wolves. The buffalos are rendered with soft, rounded forms, their brown coats blending into the earth tones of the landscape. I like the way the artist paints the wolves, they are lean and angular, with their sharp eyes focused on their prey. Look at the way Russell has painted the tension with his brushstrokes. The buffalos are huddled together for protection as they face the wolves. Painters like Russell, Remington, and Bierstadt were inspired by their surrounding, but it wasn't an objective or neutral transcription of it. They were actively constructing the West in dialogue with other artists!