|
|
Introduction
About
Karl Bodmer
Unknown
Interior &
French Louisiana
Louisiana
Purchase & the Corps of Discovery
Journeying
& Wintering
Continental
Divide, the
Pacific, & the Return
Reports
& Successors
References
Home
|
Many of
the illustrations of Indian life and the American West in
this exhibit were
made to accompany Prince Maximilian of Wied’s account of his travels
in the United States in 1832-34, up the Missouri, in the
tracks of the earlier expedition by Lewis and Clark.
Maximilian’s book Travels in the Interior of North
America was first published in three volumes in German
(issued in parts between 1839 and 1843), then published in
French (in 1840-43), and finally in English (a translation
of volumes 1 and 2 only) in 1843. Largely because of
Bodmer’s illustrations, the work is widely regarded as "the most
Celebrated Book on Indian Life and the American Frontier."
The illustrator was a previously
little-known Swiss artist, Karl Bodmer (1809-1893), who
traveled with Maximilian, making both quick sketches and
(during a prolonged stay at Fort Clark in the winter of
1833-34) more elaborate paintings. On Bodmer’s return to
Europe, he (and other artists) used his sketches as the
basis for the series of 81 illustrations commissioned by
Maximilian.
The aquatint engravings prepared from
the paintings in Paris were issued in small groups, both
hand-colored and uncolored, on different grades of paper,
over several years. The original German issue in 1839-43
comprised 355 sets, more than half uncolored. The 81
illustrations are numbered in two sequences, as plates
(Tableaux, to be bound as a separate volume) and smaller
Vignettes (intended to be bound in with the text); the
captions are given in three languages, to allow the same
plates to be used with all three editions.
The library’s set (London: Ackerman,
1843-44) was originally purchased in the 1840's for $150 and
now lacks a few of the plates. For conservation and
display purposes, some years ago both the plates and
vignettes were disbound,
matted and framed.
|
