Even as his fame as an artist increased and there was greater pressure for him to create major oil paintings and bronzes for exhibition and sale, Russell nevertheless continued to create painted wax and plaster models to give to family and friends. He made a number of horse heads, such as this one, that seem to be portraits of particular animals. This horse head wound up in the possession of the artist’s close friend Sid Willis, proprietor of the Mint Saloon in Great Falls. The animal’s head was modeled from a mixture of beeswax and paraffin infused with a red pigment that gives the surface a translucent luster of dark reddish browns. As with the artist’s other models of this type, the horse’s eyes are fashioned around black glass beads that were once part of a necklace. The head is molded onto a carved base of softwood, most likely pine.