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The Travellers meeting with Minatarre Indians near Fort Clark
Reflections of a Journey: Engravings after Karl Bodmer
This summer, in the Wagner Wing, the amazing, incredibly detailed, and historic
and artistic engravings by Karl Bomer will be on display. Bodmer (1809-1893) a Swiss painter and illustrator traveled up the Missouri River with Prince Maximilian, a German naturalist and explorer in the early 1830s. Their observations were compiled in Travels in the American Interior published in the 1840s. The exhibit will feature selected hand-colored engravings from the collection of the Museum of the Southwest.
As the expedition artist, Bodmer was commissioned to make detailed illustrations of the life, habits and customs of the Indians. By 1833, the company had reached St. Louis where they decided to come under the protection of John Jacob Astor's Fur Company and travel up the Missouri River by steamboat. During this trip Bodmer recorded events occurring in the present states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming. Bodmer is known for his careful observation and attention to detail. Unlike some other artists in the American West, he tried not to romanticize his subjects but show them as they really were. In 1834, Bodmer returned to Barbizon, France where he finished 81 paintings to illustrate his journal of the trip.
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