Charles Banks Wilson

Wilson died in his sleep at the age of 94 on May 2, 2013.

May 9, 2007 “Charles Banks Wilson Day” was confirmed by the Oklahoma House of Representatives and the Oklahoma State Senate.

In 1995 Wilson painted "Freedom's Warrior", which commemorates the history of Native American involvement in the U.S. armed forces, and their contributions to our country in times of war or peace. Commissioned by David W. Hearn, Jr., and currently on loan to the Clifton Steamboat Museum in Beaumont, Texas. The painting was loaned to the museum to highlight its collection of Mr. Wilson's work.

Children attending Oklahoma schools studied from a history textbook that contained over 50 of his drawings. His works include prize-winning books such as the classic Treasure Island, Company of Adventurers, Henry's Lincoln, and Mustangs. Writers have said that the paintings by Charles Banks Wilson breathe the spirit of the southwest. Commissioned by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1955, Wilson's mural "The Trapper's Bride" is among the most superb records of the American West's fur trade.

Wilson enrolled in the Art Institute of Chicago in 1937 to study painting, watercolor and lithography. He obtained an apprenticeship as an illustrator at the Chicago Tribune, and contributed to a folio for the American Art Association. Many of Wilson’s works hang in the Oklahoma State Capitol including life-size portraits of Will Rogers, Sequoyah, Jim Thorpe and Senator Robert Kerr. Four other murals depicting the early history of Oklahoma also hang under the Capitol dome.

Charles Banks Wilson (August 6, 1918 – May 2, 2013) was an American artist. Wilson was born in Springdale, Arkansas in 1918; his family eventually moved to Miami, Oklahoma, where he spent his childhood. A painter, printmaker, teacher, lecturer, historian, magazine and book illustrator, Wilson's work has been shown in over 200 exhibitions in the United States and across the globe.