HOCKADAY MUSEUM of ART Gateway to Montana's Artistic Legacy

The Call of the Mountains  
The Artists of Glacier National Park
June 27 to October 12, 2002

Sturdy Band by Philip R. Goodwin  Courtesy: Melody & Stuart Johnson

Word Painters Charles M. Russell, his friends, and guests at the famous Bull Head Lodge on Lake McDonald created work that continues to inspire artists of today.  Philip Goodwin, Maynard Dixon, Joe De Yong, John L. Clarke, Lone Wolf,  Joseph Henry Sharp, Edward Borein, Ralph DeCamp, O. C. Seltzer, and Joe Scheuerle showed the American West to the entire world.

Charles Marion Russell (1864 - 1926) Charles M. Russell was born in St. Louis in 1864 and by sixteen was living the life of a cowboy in Montana Territory. Always interested in painting, Russell first gained prominence with an image capturing the severe winter of 1886 when thousands of cattle perished on the northern plain. Waiting for a Chinook became one of his most important artistic statements. This exquisite little watercolor was shown all around Helena and soon became famous throughout the Territory. His days as a wrangler ended when Nancy Cooper became his bride in 1896. Nancy was Russell's business manager, freeing him to concentrate on his art. In 1888, Harper's Weekly became the first national publication to use his work with Recreation, Field and Stream, and Sports Afield soon following. Russell's success gave him the means to build a new home and studio in Great Falls. He and Nancy began spending some of their summers in Glacier, and in 1905 they bought land across the bay from Apgar Village on the south end of Lake McDonald. The following year Dimon and Milo Apgar built a cabin for the Russells. Originally called Kootenai Lodge, the Russells changed the name to Bull Head Lodge after Charlie's buffalo skull trademark was copyrighted. The cabin was accessible only by boat and was located 100 feet from the water's edge. Only a buffalo skull marked the cabin site from the lake as heavy undergrowth made it undetectable from the shoreline. Since there were no separate bedrooms, 48 by 21 inch muslin privacy screens served as room dividers. They became makeshift guest books as more than 150 guests of Bullhead Lodge signed their names on the fabric. Some visitors, including Joe De Yong, Olaf C. Seltzer, Kathryn Leighton, Phillip R. Goodwin, and Maynard Dixon created elaborate paintings on them, which are kept in the C. M. Russell Museum. In 1907 Charlie swore off drinking and never touched anything stronger than Vichy water thereafter. His five-year contract with Brown and Bigelow provided economic security. Now with a steadier hand, Charlie's art took off. Russell stormed New York with his first one man exhibition. Romantically titled The West Has Passed, it ran from April 12 to May 1, 1911 and included most of Russell's great paintings of the past several years. He was truly the undisputed king of western art. Russell's Bull Head Lodge became one of the stopovers for dudes led through the Park by Howard Eaton. Eaton met the tourists at the train station, loaded up their gear, and transported them into the Park on horseback. Russell's charm provided great entertainment for Eaton and his guests. Nancy -- regarding each tourist as a potential client for future paintings and bronzes -- made certain everyone signed the guest book. Russell's art ended up on numerous advertising pieces for dude ranches throughout the area. He began displaying his work in the third-story lobby of the newly-built Lewis Hotel at the northern end of Lake McDonald. One legend says that Indian scenes on the massive fireplace in the lobby were painted by Charlie, but it remains unproven. In 1926, one of the most destructive fires in the history of Glacier swept through the Park. A mile of forest burned along the edge of Lake McDonald but stopped short of Bull Head Lodge where Russell was spending his last summer. On October 24, Charlie Russell died of a heart attack at his home in Great Falls. The story was carried in newspapers all over America. Nancy continued to spend her summers at Bull Head Lodge until 1936. Today, the former Bull Head lodge is privately owned, but remains a symbol of Charlie Russell and a golden age in Glacier National Park history.

Philip R. Goodwin (1881-1935) Many consider Philip R. Goodwin America's greatest sporting and wildlife artist. Born in 1881 in Norwich, Connecticut, his artistic talents were apparent at a young age. When he won a drawing contest sponsored by Harper's Round Table, fourteen-year old Goodwin became the focus of national attention. In the fall of 1898, he entered the Drexel Institute of Art and Industry in Philadelphia to study with Howard Pyle. Pyle, considered the country's leading illustrator and teacher, helped his students achieve success, in part through his many contacts with book and magazine publishers. In 1903 he recommended Goodwin to illustrate Jack London's Call of the Wild. Released in July, the book was an immediate success, prompting art directors to seek more work from the talented young artist. Goodwin first met Charlie Russell in 1904 when Russell visited New York. Russell was the center of attention, colorfully dressed in cowboy clothes, brightened by a prominent red sash always tied around his waist. Goodwin, on the other hand, was unassuming in nature and dress, quietly unnoticed in a crowd. Their friendship was cemented by their shared passion for the great outdoors. When Russell invited Goodwin to Bull Head Lodge in Glacier, he immediately accepted. Not only would the trip give Goodwin a chance to spend more time with Russell, but would afford him the opportunity to photograph reference material for paintings. After a long car trip, he crossed Montana where he saw "lots of Indians and their ponies." On August 2, 1907, soon after arriving in Glacier, he enthusiastically wrote: "It is one of the prettiest spots I have ever seen here on the lake with the Giant Rockies surrounding it..." Goodwin added his personal mark to Bull Head Lodge lore when Russell asked him to help decorate the new fireplace. Since a mason was just finishing, the two artists were able to etch twelve images into the wet cement. Goodwin contributed a standing moose, a wolf, a bear, and a portaging scene, signing them P.R.G. Goodwin thought Russell "...more than a genius. His work is a great asset to the country and a monument to the Old West." He soon received the first of several beautifully illustrated letters from Russell. He mailed back a reply, nostalgically illustrated with images of experiences they shared in Glacier. Goodwin looked forward to another summer trip to Glacier in 1910. Russell convinced him to visit Bull Head Lodge a second time. While he was visiting, Russell was working on illustrations for a book by Carrie Adelle Strahorn, who was staying at Apgar, across the lake from the Bull Head Lodge. When Strahorn saw him sketching, she expressed admiration, but referred to his sketches as "pretties." Goodwin was indignant as he'd just finished illustrating a best-selling book about Theodore Roosevelt's African travels before coming out west. Russell never forgot it. Every few mornings he'd ask, "Well Philip, going to make any pretties today?" Later in the decade Goodwin painted the famous Horse and Rider image for Winchester, which became one of the most enduring product logos in American history. Unfortunately, Goodwin never returned to Glacier National Park.

Joe De Yong (1894-1975) Joe De Yong was born in Webster Groves, Missouri in 1894, and raised in Dewey, Oklahoma. De Yong was always a cowboy at heart and when he was old enough, sought work at local ranches. In 1911 he met Tom Mix, a western movie star who was filming Life On The Diamond "S" Ranch. They struck up a friendship and in 1913, De Yong moved to Prescott, Arizona to work as a technical advisor on Tom Mix films. He contracted spinal meningitis which resulted in permanent hearing loss. During his convalescence, De Yong mustered the courage to write to Charlie Russell asking for advice on an art career. Encouraged by Russell's response, De Yong left for Montana in the spring of 1914. That summer he met Charlie Russell, and by January 1916 he was living with the Russell family. When the Russells were away, De Yong watched the house and fed the animals. In turn, Russell became De Yong's mentor, teaching all he knew about painting and sculpture to his eager protégé. De Yong spent more time with Russell at the Bull Head Lodge in Glacier than any other artist. The two communicated in Indian sign language or by exchanging notes. Many of these messages were saved, providing valuable insight into their everyday activities, working techniques, and philosophy on life. Through his association with Russell, Joe De Yong met a number of important individuals. Philip R. Goodwin corresponded and shared the same painting techniques with him that proved so beneficial to Russell. With Nancy Russell's help De Yong published illustrations in Literary Digest and World Illustrated. He also illustrated Frank Linderman's first novel, Lige Mount, Free Trapper. Nicknamed "Kid Currycomb," De Yong accompanied Glacier Park guide Howard Eaton and his parties selling art. In 1924, De Yong went to California with the Russells and was introduced to Will Rogers, Charles Lummis, Harry Carey, and William S. Hart. Two years later he moved to Santa Barbara to study with Edward Borien. It was there that he heard the sad news of Charlie Russell's passing. He remained steadfastly loyal to Nancy Russell. He helped repair several Russell plasters before they were cast, and always championed Charlie's art. Before the city of Great Falls opened Russell's studio for public viewing, Nancy and De Yong arranged the objects there as Charlie would have wanted. With her approval, he set the studio clock to the time of Russell's death. Over the next ten years, De Yong made a living illustrating pulp western magazines. Hollywood gave him a break in 1936 when he was hired as a historical advisor and costume artist for C.B. DeMille's The Plainsman. He designed headdresses, moccasins, and other native clothing in the style of the Blackfeet. Joe De Yong eventually worked on 21 major motion pictures -- including Union Pacific, Northwest Mounted Police (where he utilized Russell paintings of Glacier in his production designs), The Virginian, Red River, The Big Sky, and Shane.

Maynard Dixon (1875 - 1946) Dixon was born in Fresno, California in 1875, and showed exceptional artistic talent as a youth. When he was 16 he wrote, "I am determined to devote my life to illustrating the Old West," and sent two sketch books to Frederic Remington, his childhood hero. Remington replied, "...You draw better at your age than I did at the same age... if you imitate any other man ever so little you are 'gone'... above all draw-draw-draw-draw-and always from nature." Dixon briefly attended Mark Hopkins Institute in San Francisco, but left to produce illustrations for the Overland Monthly, and other magazines. The devastating San Francisco earthquake destroyed Dixon's studio in 1906. The following year he moved to New York City. Philip R. Goodwin, John Marchand, Will Crawford, and Dixon gathered at fellow Californian Edward Borein's studio. When Charlie Russell arrived, he joined them too. Dixon met Russell in 1907. In 1909, Dixon accepted an invitation to tour the Northern Rockies with his friend Charles Moody, a physician at the Sand Point Agency. He traveled by rail to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and then by horseback to the Saint Ignatius Mission on the Flathead Reservation north of Missoula. He composed several paintings after this visit. Dixon left New York and returned to San Francisco. In 1912 met James Willard Schultz, from whom Dixon learned much about Native Americans, and incorporated them in his art. That same year marked an important change in his life, where he became a "painter" rather than an "illustrator." His new emphasis prompted Charlie Russell to write, "I think your pictures were fine. They looked mighty real to me. Your Indians ponies and lodges were all mighty skookum.... I am glad of your success.... Now Dixon don't forget if you cut my range don't pass my camp." When the Great Northern Railway offered Maynard Dixon a commission to come to Glacier National Park to paint, he jumped at the opportunity. In 1917, Louis Hill asked Dixon to paint the Blackfeet Indians for his Glacier Hotel and advertising promotions. Dixon conveyed his enthusiasm to Russell who replied on August 21, "... there is lots of good picture country and I think we can have a good time." Dixon arrived in Glacier with his young daughter, Constance. After a two-week tour of Glacier, Dixon visited Bull Head Lodge. Dixon continued east where he camped at Cutbank Creek with Curly Bear, Owen Heavy Breast, Two Guns White Calf, Old Beaver Woman, and Lazy Bear. He thought they were "the best Indians I have seen yet." The crisp September days were appealing, and he watched the "smoke-tanned cones of teepees stand sharp in the sun, sending their blue-white breath into the breathless morning." Going on to Browning, he saw grass dances, scalp dances, and the opening of a sacred beaver medicine bundle. While on the Blackfeet Reservation, Dixon produced numerous oil sketches and drawings in his distinctive style, with bold, commanding brushstrokes, for future studio work. His daughter Constance recalled how their departure broke her heart: "I wanted to stay and become an Indian." 
Dixon completed twelve major paintings for the Great Northern Railway after his visit. He never returned to Montana, but continued to paint Native Americans, and the western landscape throughout his life. His works from those important days in Montana are rare and highly sought by museums and collectors.

H. M. Schultz A.K.A. Lone Wolf (1882 - 1970) Perhaps the most important Native American painter associated with Glacier National Park is Hart Merriam Schultz, more commonly known as Lone Wolf. Born in 1882 in Birch Creek, Montana, Lone Wolf was the only child of James Willard Schultz and his Blackfoot wife, Fine Shield Woman. Red Eagle, a Blackfoot medicine man named him Lone Wolf, but his father christened him after his boyhood friend, C. Hart Merriam, a distinguished physician and anthropologist. Lone Wolf was raised as a traditional Blackfoot on the family ranch near Fort Conrad. Since his father was often away, guiding tourists through Glacier National Park. Lone Wolf and his uncle, Last Rider, were responsible for running the ranch. Despite having little free time, Lone Wolf dabbled in watercolor, making his first sale to a clerk at Joe Kipp's Trading Post in Browning. When Lone Wolf came down with tuberculosis, his doctor advised him to spend time in the drier climate of the Southwest with the hope of improving his lung condition. He found work as a cowboy, and in 1906 guided tourists in the Grand Canyon. In his off hours he painted. By chance he met Thomas Moran, a popular landscape painter, who thought highly of Lone Wolf's art and recommended he attend the Art Student's League in Los Angeles. In 1909 he studied art at the League, continuing his instruction at the Chicago Art Institute. However, academic life did not really appeal to Lone Wolf, and before long he returned to Montana. Lone Wolf worked at the Galbaith ranch near the Canadian border, where he met Naoma Tracy, the daughter of the camp foreman. After a one-day courtship, they rode by horseback to Cut Bank where they were married by the Justice of the Peace. Naoma brought a sense of stability to Lone Wolf that lasted throughout their 54-year marriage. In 1917 Lone Wolf had his first one-man show in California. The Los Angeles Times carried the headline "Vance Thompson Discovers Wonderful Indian Artist, An Artist With a Vision." Thompson, the Times art critic, praised Lone Wolf: "It is a rare thing to discover an artist. I have seen the young painters pass in droves through the schools and salons of Paris, and in 20 years I can claim to have been the discoverer of only one great artist. Now I like to think that I have, at last, discovered another and he is an artist who has authentic vision, sincerity and a brush which is already capable of doing precisely the thing he wants it to..." Lone Wolf spent the summers painting at his studio near St. Mary's Lake. In 1920 August Hecksher, an avid art collector, arranged for Lone Wolf's first show in New York. He also introduced the artist to the owner of Babcock Galleries thus beginning an association that lasted for years. Soon Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Owen Wister, and others began collecting his work. Lone Wolf died February 9, 1970, in Tucson, a few days short of his 88th birthday. On July 16, 1971, a Give-Away Feast was held in Browning to honor Lone Wolf's life. There, along with hundreds of Blackfeet, Naoma viewed the photographs, paintings and other memorabilia on display in tribute to Glacier's most famous Native painter.

John L. Clarke (1881 - 1970) John L. Clarke was born on May 10, 1881 to Horace and First Kills, the daughter of Blackfeet Chief Stands Alone. He was raised in the Highwood area, near Great Falls where smallpox and scarlet fever were endemic, taking the lives of five of John's brothers. John contracted scarlet fever when he was two years old, leaving him deaf and unable to speak. As a teen, John attended the Montana School for the Deaf in Boulder where he took his first carving class. Years later he recalled; " When I was a boy I first used mud that was solid or sticky enough from anyplace I could find it. While I attended Boulder School for the Deaf, there was a carving class. This was my first experience in carving. I carve because I take great pleasure in making what I see that is beautiful. When I see an animal I feel the wish to create it in wood as near as possible." Clarke finished his formal education at St. John's School for the Deaf in Wisconsin. In 1913, John returned to live with his father on the east side of Glacier. With its impressive library, their home attracted artists, writers, and musicians including Mary Roberts Rinehart and Joseph Sharp. Four years later, Clarke exhibited a carving at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Bolstered by its reception, Clarke began working in a small studio near Swiftcurrent Falls. Louis Hill was so impressed with Clarke's talent that he commissioned wooden bears for the bases of the table lamps used in his lodges. He also purchased 100 small carvings of goats to sell in hotel gift shops. In 1918, Clarke married Mary "Mamie" Peters Simon who became an invaluable business manager, acting as his interpreter, press secretary, and correspondent. Shortly after he married, John received a letter from Charlie Russell responding to his letter about how to sell his carvings. Years later Mamie discussed their friendship: "His visits were of greatest possible moments to John. Although at first greeting John invariably told Mr. Russell (Indian sign language -- of which he too was very good), "Let us exchange heads, yours is fine." Then (Mr. Russell) would laugh and tell John, "Yours too is good." Mr. Russell would then look at all of my husband's work, sculpture and landscape (oil) and praise it, encouraging just enough and not too much. He was so understanding, deeply sympathetic and in all wholly lovable." Galleries in New York, Boston, London, and Paris exhibited Clarke's woodcarvings. Collectors included Warren G. Harding, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Louis Hill, and Charlie Russell. Clarke won a gold medal from the American Art Academy in 1918, and exhibited at the 1934 Chicago World's Fair.Clarke's reputation as a wood carver drew artists from across the country and Europe to his modest studio. Students watched with great interest as he expertly carved mountain goats, bears, big horn sheep, and grizzlies from blocks of wood. One person more than any other has kept John Clarke's life and works from being forgotten. Clarke's adopted daughter, Joyce Marie, turned his studio into the John L. Clarke Western Art Gallery and Memorial Museum near Glacier Park Lodge. Today it remains a fitting tribute to this master carver. 

Joseph Henry Sharp (1859 - 1953) Born in Bridgeport, Ohio, Joseph Sharp lost his hearing due to infection at a young age. In 1874 he was accepted at the McMicken School of Design at the University of Cincinnati even though he was only 14 years old. During his eight years of study there, he became acquainted with Henry Farny, a successful easel painter who specialized in scenes of Indian life. Through Farny, Sharp's interest in the West was kindled, and in 1883 he made his first trip west visiting New Mexico, Arizona, and Oregon. Sharp first went to Montana in 1899. Asked why he went there rather than stay in the Southwest, Sharp explained, "I went north because I realized that Taos would last longer. I found this northern prototype would soon be extinct and I decided to put into my canvases representations of their present day and time." He spent the following summer traveling between the Crow Agency in southern Montana and Glacier country. While at the Crow Agency, Sharp finished 93 paintings for the Special Exhibition of Indian Portraits Painted from Life by Mr. J. H. Sharp, exhibited in Cincinnati, Detroit, and Washington. The Smithsonian purchased 11 paintings. In 1901, Sharp exhibited at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, selling every painting to Phoebe Hearst. Hearst also purchased all the paintings in Sharp's Cincinnati studio, financially enabling him to divide his time between Taos and Montana where he wintered from 1902 to 1910. Sharp and Samuel Reynolds, the superintendent of the Crow Agency, became close friends. Reynolds helped Sharp build a studio and home on the reservation. By 1906, Sharp was totally immersed in Crow life on the reservation. He traveled throughout the area, painting from a makeshift studio fashioned out of a sheepherder's wagon. Rather than focus on portraiture, he turned his attention to the surrounding scenery, painting the countryside and often incorporating native teepees. His patrons were hesitant to buy pure landscapes prompting Sharp to lament, "The only thing, people won't buy my landscapes unless I put those darn teepees in, and some of my best things don't need them; I won't do it, so I lose sales." Reynolds resigned in 1910, and Sharp had confrontations with each new Indian Agent. As a result, less time was spent in Montana each year. Sharp ended his trips to Montana in the twenties and sold the cabin in 1935. He died in 1953, just prior to his 94th birthday. His paintings of Glacier country span from 1898's Big Beaver to 1932's Blackfeet Camp. Certainly Sharp's images of Glacier country solidified his reputation as one of the West's greatest artists. One reviewer summarized his importance stating, "He is always our beloved Indian painter and in the benevolent way is bound in the romance and the folklore of the Indian."

Joe Scheuerle (1873-1948) Joe Scheuerle was born in Vienna, Austria, and raised in Stuttgart, Germany. His family migrated to the United States in 1882. He attended public schools in the old German section of Cincinnati, took lessons at the Cincinnati Art Academy, and taught at Ohio Military Institute and other regional schools, before he took a steady commercial job at Cincinnati's famous Strobridge Lithographing Company. 
Strobridge printed hundreds of full-color posters for Barnum & Bailey, Adam Forepaugh, The Ringling Brothers, and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Scheuerle put his drawing talents to work on the colorful animals and performers featured in these traveling shows, doing sketches from life for eventual printing. His work was literally pasted throughout the United States by crews of advance men who would "paper" a town or region a week or two before the main tent shows would arrive by railroad or wagon. 
Scheuerle met William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody in Chicago when he went to work for another printing company. He also made friends with other performers in the Wild West Show - especially Iron Tail of the Sioux. He later traveled to the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota to spend time with Iron Tail and paint him in his home country. Iron Tail later died on a train, while working for Buffalo Bill. Joe visited with the Native Americans regularly with his wife Carolyn and daughter Margaret until he was sixty-five years old. He sketched the outstanding Sioux general Red Cloud, and many other survivors of the Indian wars of the late Nineteenth Century. His travels took him throughout the Northwestern United States, including the mouth of the Columbia River, where he painted and drew the rapidly changing lives of Native Americans. 
When Glacier National Park was chartered by Congress in 1910, Scheuerle was visiting the Blackfeet, and met Charles M. Russell. They struck up a long friendship. Joe also worked for Louis W. Hill, drawing the Mountain Goat logo for the Great Northern Railway, and producing some of the commercial art for Hill's See America First campaign. Joe Scheuerle's social circle included artists J. H. Sharp and Joe DeYong, William S. Hart, the movie actor, and Will Rogers, cowboy-turned-Broadway Star. At his homes in Chicago or New Jersey, he made all of his acquaintances welcome. He hosted Many Coups of the Crow Nation, and even took him to the Lincoln Park Zoo. Joe Scheuerle passed away at his home in East Orange, New Jersey. He kept his "Indian portraits" around him all his life, as memories of dear friends.

R. E. DeCamp (1858 - 1934) Ralph Earl DeCamp was born in Attica, New York. He grew up in Minnesota, by the Red River. He ran a threshing business, but also made a name for himself as an artist in the Midwest. Charles Fee, a high-ranking executive for the Northern Pacific Railroad, regularly commissioned artists to travel west to paint the scenic wonders and dramatic landscapes encountered along the railroad's recently completed transcontinental line. Impressed with DeCamp's ability, Fee asked the painter to join this corps of artists working on the Northern Pacific's behalf, and the young artist accepted. DeCamp found himself bound for Yellowstone National Park in early summer 1885. His traveling companion was Ole E. Flaten. When the pair arrived in Livingston, Montana--the Northern Pacific's gateway to Yellowstone -- deep snow still covered the park. To pass time, DeCamp and Flaten traveled to Helena, but DeCamp's initial impression of Montana's capital city was not favorable. "I wouldn't live here if they gave me the state." When the snow in Yellowstone melted, the pair returned to Livingston and ventured into the park by pack train. DeCamp transformed his rough field sketches into finished paintings, selections of which the Northern Pacific purchased. Despite his initial reaction to the Montana capital's heat, DeCamp decided to relocate to Helena after his return to Minnesota. It would be his home for the next fifty years. In Helena he was manager of the Helena Abstract and Title Company and a draftsman for the United States Surveyor General's Office, a position he held until his retirement in 1924. Although he never relied upon painting as a primary means of support, DeCamp viewed art as his principal calling. At the turn of the nineteenth century, no Montanan surpassed DeCamp's expertise at portraying in resplendent detail the natural beauty of the state. DeCamp devoted his artistic energy to capturing contemporary scenic beauty. He not only applied his talents to the traditions of landscape painting but also to the relatively new medium of photography. No other Montana artist working at that time so successfully fostered one artistic vision by mastering these two distinct art forms. In 1888, a sketch club was formed with DeCamp serving as its first president. The organization's most famous member was Charles M. Russell. He and DeCamp became lifelong friends. Russell admired his mastery as a landscape painter, one time remarking, "that boy can sure paint the wettest water of anybody I know. You can hear his rivers ripple." Just when he began taking pictures is unknown, but DeCamp was using views taken by Northern Pacific photographer F. Jay Haynes as early as 1880. In his studio DeCamp painted from his photographs in the same manner he did from field sketches. In summer 1902 DeCamp once again found himself employed on behalf of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Olin D. Wheeler was retracing the journey of Lewis and Clark, and hired DeCamp to serve as photographer and illustrator for the book, The Trail of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1904, in commemoration of the Expedition's one hundredth anniversary. In 1911 DeCamp was selected to paint six murals for the Montana State Capitol. To many, these murals represent the apex of his career and his most lasting contribution to Montana art. After nearly fifty years as a mainstay of Montana art, DeCamp's life in Helena came to a halt when his wife Margaret passed away unexpectedly in November 1934. He moved to Chicago and died there two years later.

Edward Borein (1872 - 1945) John Edward Borein was the oldest of five children of the deputy sheriff of San Leandro, a town along one of the California cattle trails. Shortly after Edward's birth, the family moved to nearby Oakland, a major center in the cattle industry. Borein was encouraged by his family to pursue art studies. His formal education at the San Francisco Art Association Art School, however, lasted just one month before he decided to give it up to become a cowboy. He became a proficient roper and rider, and seemed to have no regrets about choosing such a harsh life. His work was printed in The Land of Sunshine magazine in 1896, work that was submitted only after strong encouragement from his cowhand acquaintances. His friendship with the magazine's founder, Charles Fletcher Lummis, would last until the latter's death. Although Borein tried his hand at oil painting, as well as his traditional medium of pen-and-ink, he never excelled as a painter in the way that he did as a draftsman and printmaker. He virtually gave up oil painting after comparing his work unfavorably with C. M. Russell's, feeling he would never improve enough to match Russell's skill. By 1900 he had returned to his childhood home in Oakland and established an artist's studio in his parents' house. In 1904, when he began to work in earnest as an illustrator for bay area newspapers and magazines, including Sunset Magazine. On the recommendation of friends, Borein moved to New York in 1907 to immerse himself in the fast-paced illustrators' world. Borein actually spent twelve of the most productive and rewarding years of his career in the East. Borein's familiarity with the perennially popular Western subjects kept him busy professionally, and his personable nature won him many friends. His tiny Manhattan studio, cluttered with Western memorabilia, became a "Mecca" for artists and other displaced Westerners. Borein maintained friendships with many Western artists, including C M. Russell and Maynard Dixon, as well as a wide circle of New York illustrators. He also had long-standing friendships with other celebrities, including Jack London, Teddy Roosevelt, Annie Oakley, "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Will Rogers, and many people involved in the early Western film industry. His ties to the West were thus nourished, and, after several short trips back, he returned to California permanently in 1919. He remained there for the rest of his life as a prolific and successful independent artist, managing several studios, teaching at the local art school, and producing vast quantities of etchings, drawings, and watercolors. In all of his work, Borein's concern was to convey a flavor of authenticity without pretension, factual fussiness, or complex aesthetic effects. He conjured his subjects from his imagination, but they were based in the concrete facts of the life he lived and observed. Factual accuracy in the material details he chose to depict was deeply important to him. Many find his devotion to getting the details right one of his most compelling traits.

O. C. Seltzer (1877 - 1957) Olaf Seltzer was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. When he was twelve, his exceptional artistic talent opened the doors of the Technical Institute of Copenhagen to him. He moved to Great Falls, Montana after his father's death. 
He became a railway and locomotive repairman for the Great Northern Railway, and met Charles Russell, who encouraged him to paint. Seltzer practiced his painting on the side, while working for the railroad. He started making artwork full time in 1921. 
He visited New York in 1926 - 27, going to museums and galleries and meeting eastern buyers. His style shows some of Russell's influence, but that can be said of almost every other western painter after Fredrick Remington. In 1930 he was commissioned by Dr. Philip Cole to paint a series of miniatures on Montana history that all but cost him his eyesight. He returned to Montana to stay in 1936.