Offering of the Mandan Indians, Black and White Aquatint and Etching on Paper

Origin: Switzerland
Profession: Painter and Lithographer
Born: February 11, 1809, Zurich, Switzerland
Died: 1893

While a student of painter, engraver, and uncle Johann Jacob Meyer, Karl Bodmer developed a remarkable talent for drawing and painting. After further studies in Paris, he joined his brother on a sketching trip through Germany in 1832 where he met Alexander Philip Maximilian, the Prince of Wied Neuwied. Maximilian, known for his natural history research in the coastal forests of Brazil, was searching for a professional artist to accompany him on his expedition to North America. Bodmer signed a contract with Maximilian and three weeks later, they set sail for America.

From 1833-1834, Bodmer created some of the greatest works of his career. The two traveled up the Missouri River, retracing the 1805 journey of Lewis and Clark. On the expedition, Bodmer depicted some of the same characters that George Caitlin had painted just months before. Bodmer was the last artist able to paint the Mandan Indians in North Dakota before the fatal 1837 smallpox epidemic that nearly obliterated the tribe. He also painted portraits of the Sioux, Blackfeet, Hidatsa, and other tribes, while Maximilian conducted studies and made notes on the botany and zoology of the areas. They witnessed the last of the American West before the disruptive intrusion of settlers.

Before the end of the journey, Bodmer had completed 81 paintings, illustrating Maximilians expedition. Each elegant painting displayed extremely detailed and accurate accounts of Indian ceremonies and everyday life. In 1843, Maximilian's lithographs were published in Travels in the Interior of America. Bodmer, who never revisited America, returned to Paris where he was involved with the burgeoning movement called the Barbizon School and worked with the French artists Millet and Rousseau.