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Mr. Philip D. Burden
P.O. Box 863,
Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks HP6 9HD,
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel: +44 (0) 1494 76 33 13
Email: [email protected]
One of the iconic images of the American west from the plate volume which accompanied the account of the exploration of Prince Maximilian Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied’s to the Plains of North America. The artist enroute was Karl Bodmer (1809-93) whom Ron Tyler called ‘the most accomplished artist to paint them [American Indians]’. The book considered the finest plate book on Native American Indians ever published.
Prince Maximilian (1782-1867) was a student of natural history and had studied under the same tutor as another great scientist, Alexander von Humboldt. Their field of study was anthropology and how the spread of humans around the globe had led to so many different races. Maximilian’s expedition was to attempt to answer some of those questions. They travelled up the Missouri River from St. Louis passing the forts of the American Fur Company into Montana before returning.
Whilst Prince Maximilian returned to Germany to write his account Karl Bodmer travelled to Paris to prepare his famous aquatint plates from his collection of watercolours. After several years the work was finally ready in 1839 when the first volume of text was published. Together their finished work entitled ‘Reise in das Innere Nord-America’ would be considered one of the most sympathetic and accurate recordings of the Plains Indians issued just prior to their virtual extinction within a decade. There is no other work which comes close to them for not only the accuracy and detail recorded, but for their quality of execution.
This plate number 32, one of several magnificent portraits of warriors, records the Assiniboins. Prince Maximilian refers to them on 29 June 1833. That on the left is unnamed but described as ‘a tall young warrior, who preserved a most inflexible gravity of countenance till Mr. Bodmer set his musical snuff-box agoing, on which he began to laugh’. On the right stands Pitatapiu whose ‘hair hung down like a lion’s mane, especially over his eyes, so that they could scarcely be seen; over each of them a small white sea shell was fastened with a hair string; in his hand he carried a long lance, such as they use only for show, to which a number of slips of the entrails of a bear were fastened, and smeared with red paint … The handle of his whip was of wood, with holes in it like a flute’. The original watercolours are illustrated in Thomas and Ronnefeldt. This is the first published state of 2 as catalogued by Garrett in her thesis before the addition of a date. Abbey (1956) Travel 615; Field (1873) 1036; Gallagher (2004); Garrett (1990); Goetzmann (1992) 21; Howes (1962) M443a; Howgego (2004) ‘Encyclopedia of Exploration 1800 to 1850’ W30; Hunt & Gallagher (1984); Sabin (1868-1936) 47014; Storm (1968) Graff 4648; Thomas & Ronnefeldt (1976); Tyler (1994) pp. 55-63; Wagner-Camp-Becker (1982) 76:1.
Prince Maximilian (1782-1867) was a student of natural history and had studied under the same tutor as another great scientist, Alexander von Humboldt. Their field of study was anthropology and how the spread of humans around the globe had led to so many different races. Maximilian’s expedition was to attempt to answer some of those questions. They travelled up the Missouri River from St. Louis passing the forts of the American Fur Company into Montana before returning.
Whilst Prince Maximilian returned to Germany to write his account Karl Bodmer travelled to Paris to prepare his famous aquatint plates from his collection of watercolours. After several years the work was finally ready in 1839 when the first volume of text was published. Together their finished work entitled ‘Reise in das Innere Nord-America’ would be considered one of the most sympathetic and accurate recordings of the Plains Indians issued just prior to their virtual extinction within a decade. There is no other work which comes close to them for not only the accuracy and detail recorded, but for their quality of execution.
This plate number 32, one of several magnificent portraits of warriors, records the Assiniboins. Prince Maximilian refers to them on 29 June 1833. That on the left is unnamed but described as ‘a tall young warrior, who preserved a most inflexible gravity of countenance till Mr. Bodmer set his musical snuff-box agoing, on which he began to laugh’. On the right stands Pitatapiu whose ‘hair hung down like a lion’s mane, especially over his eyes, so that they could scarcely be seen; over each of them a small white sea shell was fastened with a hair string; in his hand he carried a long lance, such as they use only for show, to which a number of slips of the entrails of a bear were fastened, and smeared with red paint … The handle of his whip was of wood, with holes in it like a flute’. The original watercolours are illustrated in Thomas and Ronnefeldt. This is the first published state of 2 as catalogued by Garrett in her thesis before the addition of a date. Abbey (1956) Travel 615; Field (1873) 1036; Gallagher (2004); Garrett (1990); Goetzmann (1992) 21; Howes (1962) M443a; Howgego (2004) ‘Encyclopedia of Exploration 1800 to 1850’ W30; Hunt & Gallagher (1984); Sabin (1868-1936) 47014; Storm (1968) Graff 4648; Thomas & Ronnefeldt (1976); Tyler (1994) pp. 55-63; Wagner-Camp-Becker (1982) 76:1.