Karl Bodmer's Studio Art: The Newberry Library Bodmer Collection

By David C. HuntW. Raymond WoodJoseph C. Porter, et al.

Book Overview

To document the natural history and inhabitants of the American West, Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied brought along Swiss artist Karl Bodmer on his 1833-34 expedition up the Missouri River. Bodmer's landscapes and portraits--later published as aquatints and woodcuts--are now considered the most vivid depiction of the nineteenth-century American West prior to the decimation of Plains tribes by disease. In paperback for the first time, this remarkable volume collects Bodmer's studio augmentations of the expeditionary sketches, and brings together nearly all of Bodmer's extant works not previously collected in book form. The book is framed by W. Raymond Wood's introduction and annotations of the artwork, Joseph C. Porter's examination of the expedition's scientific and intellectual significance, and David C. Hunt's historical summary of the publication of Bodmer's North American work.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252027566
• ISBN13: 9780252027567
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Captured the imaginations of the western world then and now

Collaboratively written by W. Raymond Wood (Professor of Anthropology, University of Missouri-Columbia), Joseph C. Porter (Chief Curator, North Carolina Museum of History), and David C. Hunt (Director, Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas), and enhanced with numerous black-and-white illustrations and studio art reproductions, Karl Bodmer's Studio Art is a truly captivating collection of images and an informative, scholarly study of the works of Karl Bodmer, a Swiss artist whom Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied selected for an 1833-34 expedition up the Missouri River. Bodmer sketched and painted landscapes and Native American portraits which uniquely captured the imaginations of the western world then and now. Enthusiastically recommended for academic and community library Art History and American History reference collections, Karl Bodmer's Studio Art focuses more on the story of Bodmer's journey than the art itself, yet both the text and the illustrations have a timeless appeal.