In May of 1832, Swiss artist Karl Bodmer (1809-93) set out with Maximilian Prince of Wied, a German aristocrat and scientist, on a 28-month journey along the Ohio and Missouri rivers. For Bodmer, the expedition resulted in more than 400 watercolors and sketches of Native American people, landscapes, animals, and plants. Engravings of many of the images were subsequently used to illustrate Travels in the Interior of North America, Prince Maximilian's well-known historical account. Karl Bodmer is an homage to the great painter who captured for the rest of the world so many important natural details of early America. Presented here are all 81 engravings used to illustrate Maximilian's book, and 9 of Bodmer's original watercolors and sketches, as well as photographs of artifacts collected during the legendary passage. Bodmer's detailed work is among the most important documents of Native American culture from that region. Almost all of these images are held today in public collections in the United States, including large collections at the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha. Karl Bodmer is a richly illustrated volume that brings to life a monumental event in both art history and the history of early America.

Looks at the nineteenth-century Swiss artist's watercolors and drawings of the American West, Indians, and Western wildlife

"In the early nineteenth century, Prince Maximilian Of Wied traveled the length of the Missouri River on an excursion to uncover what he called "the natural face of North America"-its landscapes, flora and fauna, and particularly its Native inhabitants. Among his small party was the young Swiss artist Karl Bodmer (1809-1893), who would prove to be one of the most accomplished and prolific artists to visit the American frontier. Departing St. Louis in April 1833, Bodmer and Maximilian would travel over 2,500 miles through the heart of North America before reaching Fort McKenzie in present-day Montana, spending time among the Omaha, Otoe, and Pawnee; the Yankton and Santee Sioux; and the Assiniboines, Plains Cree, Blackfeet, Piegans, Bloods, and Gros Ventre. At their winter quarters at Fort Clark, they made intimate acquaintances among the Mandan and Hidatsa. Bodmer's watercolors, executed in the field and upon his return to Europe, remain one of the most perceptive and compelling visual accounts of the American West, and are an invaluable record of the Missouri River and its Indigenous communities at a pivotal historic moment. Drawn from Joslyn Art Museum's renowned Maximilian-Bodmer Collection, this is the first publication to focus on Bodmer as a portraitist. The catalog includes essays examining Bodmer's artistic practice within the context of nineteenth-century ethnography; the international dissemination of his images; and the ongoing significance of his work to Indigenous communities. Over 50 watercolor portraits are reproduced, accompanied by a selection of the artist's landscapes, camp, and ceremonial sites"--

In May of 1832, Swiss artist Karl Bodmer (1809-93) set out with Maximilian, Prince of Wied, on a twenty-eight-month expedition along the Ohio and Missouri Rivers. Along the way, Bodmer produced more than four hundred watercolors and sketches of Native American people, landscapes, animals, and plants. Engravings of many of the images were subsequently used to illustrate Travels in the Interiors of North America, Prince Maximilian's well-known historical account. Paying homage to the great painter who captured for the rest of the world so many important natural details of early America, Karl Bodmer presents all eighty-one engravings used to illustrate Maximilian's book, as well as the original watercolors, sketches, and photographs collected during the passage. Bodmer's detailed work is among the most important documents of Native American culture of the nineteenth century, and this richly illustrated volume brings to life a monumental event in both art history and the history of early America.

The folder may include clippings, announcements, small exhibition catalogs, and other ephemeral items.