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A Faithful and Vivid Picture:
Karl Bodmer's North American Prints
A Faithful and
Vivid Picture examines and pays homage to one of
the milestones of 19th-century publishing: Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied's
Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-34. Joslyn will showcase
the extraordinary works of Swiss-born artist Karl Bodmer (1809-1893) in
the exhibition A Faithful and Vivid Picture: Karl Bodmer's North American
Prints that features over 100 watercolors, drawings, and prints created
to illustrate the publication from Joslyn's remarkable Maximilian-Bodmer
collection, as well as several seldom seen works from esteemed American
museums and libraries.
Lamenting the lack of "a faithful and vivid picture"
of North America and its inhabitants, Maximilian, an academically trained
German scientist, hired the young, talented Bodmer to visually record his
journey through America's western frontier in preparation for a published,
illustrated account of his findings.
During
the years 1832-34, Maximilian and his protege covered thousands of miles,
traveling from Boston to as far west as present-day central Montana. Along
the way, Maximilian collected specimens and recorded his observations about
the continent and its flora, fauna, and tribal peoples, while Bodmer sketched
the landscape and painted detailed portraits of the Native Americans they
encountered. In particular, a five-month stay among the Mandan and Hidatsa
at present-day Bismarck, North Dakota during the winter of 1833-34 provided
Bodmer with an unprecedented opportunity to document the people, traditions,
and history of the two tribes, and he brilliantly captured several important
ceremonies and customs. (left: After Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809-1893),
Encampment of the Piekann Indians; aquatint, etching, and stipple;
first state; from the collection of Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska)
Maximilian and Bodmer returned to Europe in 1834 with reams
of notes, specimens and ethnographic artifacts, and hundreds of drawings
and watercolors. From his ancestral estate in Germany, Maximilian worked
on turning his field notes into a readable text, while in Paris, Bodmer
began the equally difficult process of translating his field sketches into
81 highly finished printed illustrations. Despite Maximilian's thriftiness,
Bodmer convinced his patron to spare no expense in the production of their
travelogue. Aquatint, one of the most time-consuming and costly forms of
printmaking was chosen as the medium to reproduce Bodmer's originals, and
publishers ultimately offered five distinct, luxurious versions of the publication
to subscribers, including black-and-white as well as hand-colored on a variety
of specialized papers.
During the nearly 10 years it took to produce the book,
Bodmer and his team of nearly 30 engravers changed many of the prints, often
several times. They altered landscapes, inscriptions, and figures -- and
in
one extreme case, replaced
the entire printing plate -- based on Maximilian's approval (or disapproval),
advice from publishers, or Bodmer's own artistic considerations. Towards
the end of the project, the steel-plated plates, which began to wear after
numerous printings, needed to be refreshed by reworking. The result of these
constant modifications is a surprising number of different states or variants
-- a sometimes subtly, other times dramatically different image pulled from
the same printing plate. Collectors today may be unaware that their particular
state is one of several variations from the same printing plate. A Faithful
and Vivid Picture explores the process through which Bodmer and his
team transformed his drawings and watercolors into finished prints, tracing
their artistic journey from field sketch to studio model to artist's proof,
and, finally, first, second, and in some cases, third or more states. The
exhibition offers the first-time opportunity for viewers to chart changes
in Bodmer's prints from state to state and consider such thorny issues as
editions, coloring, and technique in one of the 19th century's most spectacular
publications on America. (left: Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809-1893), Nínoch-Kiäiu,
Piegan Blackfeet Chief; watercolor on paper; from the collection of
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska)
This exhibition is organized by Joslyn Art Museum and will
travel to the Amen Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, July 19 through September
14, 2003. The exhibition has been made possible by the generous support
of the Bodmer Society, a national support group of Joslyn's Margre H. Durham
Center for Western Studies.
Selected text of the gallery guide for the Karl Bodmer exhibition
at Joslyn Art Museum:
- Upon its debut in the 1840s, critics praised Prince Maximilian's
Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-34 as "the most
elaborate and costly work on the geography and scenery of North America
ever published." This assessment was due in no small part
to the efforts of Karl Bodmer, whose 81 prints created for the Atlas --
48 large tableaux and 33 smaller chapter vignettes -- rank among the most
accurate and beautiful records of the upper Missouri frontier. Issued
in German (1839-41), French (1840-43), and English (1843-44) editions,
publishers offered subscribers five different specialized versions, including
an opulent hand-colored one, which could cost up to $3,000 in today's dollars. Travels
is the result of a nearly fifteen-year collaboration between the Prince
and Bodmer. This exhibition traces the history of that partnership
from the wilds of frontier America to the studios of Paris.
-
- The Prince and the Painter
-
- Having devoted his life to the study of natural history,
German Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied (1782-1867) lamented the lack
of a "faithful and vivid picture" of North America and its native
peoples. To remedy this, Maximilian proposed a scientific expedition. The
Prince had earlier spent two years in equatorial Brazil and published his
conclusions and illustrations under the title Reise nach Brasilien in
den Jahren 1815 bis 1817 (Travels in Brazil in the Years 1815-1817). An
observant if unsophisticated draftsman, Maximilian suffered the indignity
of having his brother and sister redraw his sketches to make them more
suitable for publication. The images were nonetheless criticized
-- their objective nature did not conform to the romantic, European view
of the "noble savage." Chastened by the experience, Maximilian
determined to employ a trained artist to visually document his North American
journey. Fate intervened in early 1832 when the Prince was introduced
to the panoramic landscapes of Swiss-born artist Karl Bodmer (1809-1893),
who was residing in Koblenz near the Prince's ancestral estate. Maximilian
was sufficiently impressed with Bodmer's work that he made an offer that
would change the young man's life forever.
-
- The Expedition
-
- Maximilian and Bodmer landed at Boston Harbor amidst
Independence Day celebrations in July 1832. Although the Prince
considered the eastern United States insignificant to his research, Bodmer
nevertheless sketched several views of the scenery. By April
1833, the party had reached St. Louis where an introduction to famed explorer
William Clark provided inspiration for the long trip ahead. During
the slow voyage up the Missouri, Bodmer made studies of noteworthy natural
formations, while stops at forts and trading posts provided introductions
to Native Americans of the
- region. Bear and bison hunts, as well as a
bloody conflict between warring tribes at Fort McKenzie in central Montana,
were among the more dramatic experiences Bodmer would later reproduce for
Travels. Scientifically and artistically, the highlight of the
journey was a nearly five-month stay near
- the Mandan and Hidatsa at Fort Clark in North Dakota. Living
among the peoples that Maximilian described as "the most attractive
sight which we had yet met with upon this voyage," afforded extended
periods of study, and Bodmer was able to capture several ceremonies and
more intimate aspects of daily life. After a return journey
down the Missouri, followed by a detour through the Great Lakes to Niagara
Falls, the party left America in July 1834 with copious notes, hundreds
of natural history specimens, ethnographic artifacts, and Bodmer"s
invaluable drawings and watercolors.
-
- Prints fit for a Prince
-
- Back in Europe, Maximilian concentrated on turning his
field notes into a readable text. Similarly, Bodmer, now living
in Paris, focused on creating "faithful and vivid" illustrations,
first developing his field sketches into finished compositions, often relying
on Maximilian's notes and drawings, his own written records, and live models
to reconstruct events. In 1836, the two men drafted an agreement
that gave the artist "sole management of the work," which, aside
from artistic duties, included business administration and book promotion. With
Bodmer in control, Maximilian's plans for an inexpensive yet handsome volume
were quickly supplanted by the artist's more extravagant ideas. While
Maximilian scaled Bodmer's proposal for 93 images down to 81, the artist
chose costly and time-consuming intaglio techniques to reproduce the images. The
primary technique, aquatint, preferred by landscape engravers because it
duplicated the tonal gradations of watercolor, was supplemented with etching,
line engraving, mezzotint, and roulette. To ensure the quality
of the work, Bodmer established a studio of some 30 specialists in these
complex intaglio methods. As the publication progressed over
the next ten years, the engravers often altered plates to satisfy the Prince's
demands for accuracy and Bodmer's artistic wishes, and for the more practical
need to rework the copper plates worn through continuous printing. This
resulted in a number of variations or states -- differences in images caused
by changes to their printing plates -- that exist across the German, French,
and English editions.
-
- The complexities of producing such a magnum opus extended
beyond just engraving the pictures, however. All prints were
given a set of inscriptions: German, French and English titles to correspond
to the three text editions; artist, printer, and engraver credits just
beneath the image; and the names of the German, French, and English publishers. Hand
coloring was another involved phase. Images destined for this
were first printed à la poupée -- inked in
broad swaths of color with cloth daubers called dollies, or in French,
poupée -- and hand colored by a team of expert watercolorists. Finally,
prior to distribution from the studio, each print was marked with a blind
stamp, an embossed seal with Bodmer's name and position as director of
the studio, thereby signifying his approval.
-
- Travels in the Twentieth Century
-
- Despite the acclaim Travels received from the
scholarly community, its cost placed it out of reach to all but the very
wealthy. Bodmer made valiant efforts to promote the book but
the money (the equivalent today of over $500,000) spent on production was
never recovered. Attempting to recoup these losses, Maximilian
and Bodmer issued a smaller, less expensive version in 1846, North America
in Pictures, and even contemplated selling the printing plates to rival
publishers. The financial failure notwithstanding, Bodmer's
images helped shape the public view of the American West for generations
and established the Plains Indian as the prototypical Native American in
popular culture. American and European journals, novels, and
textbooks reproduced the North American prints well into the nineteenth
century. Graham's Magazine in particular featured dozens
of the images throughout the 1840s and 50s, introducing mass audiences
to American frontier life. As required by his contract, Bodmer
returned the printing plates, drawings, and watercolors to the Prince,
where they remained in the Wied archives for nearly a century. In
the 1920s, the Leipzig publisher Schmidt & Guenther issued a restrike
-- a new edition from the original printing plates -- commissioned by the
Wied family. In 1962, Bodmer's drawings and watercolors and
the printing plates, along with other expedition-related material, found
a permanent home as the Maximilian-Bodmer collection at Joslyn Art Museum. The
copper and steel plates were in nearly pristine condition, and in the early
1990s, Alecto Historical Editions of London produced a second twentieth-century
edition for Joslyn.
-
- Continued interest in Native American studies and art
of the American West has given Bodmer's North American prints a longevity
that he, in the spring of 1832 when he was first approached by Prince Maximilian,
could hardly have imagined.
-
-
- Glossary of Terms
-
- Printmaking is a complex and varied process that combines
numerous techniques and methods. This glossary is intended to
assist in understanding the terms used in this guide and the exhibition.
-
- à la poupée
An image is printed à la poupée when colored ink is applied
directly to a plate's surface and worked into the appropriate area of the
design using cotton daubers called dollies, or in French, poupée.
-
- Aquatint The term derives
from its similarity to watercolor wash when printed. As with
etching (see definition below), a grainy resin-coated metal plate is bathed
in acid after heating, but the intention is to etch sections rather than
lines. The result is a textured effect and the number of acid
baths, along with applied varnish, dictates the gradation of tones.
-
- Blind stamp A blind stamp
is an embossed seal impressed on a print as a distinguishing mark by an
artist, studio, publisher, institution, or collector.
-
- Edition An edition of a print
includes all the impressions published at the same time or as part of the
same publishing event.
-
- Engraving Engraving is a
term often applied to all intaglio prints, while "line engraving"
is used to refer to the specific process. In line engraving,
a design is carved directly onto a metal plate by applying pressure with
a pointed tool called a graver or burin.
-
- Etching In etching, a metal
plate is covered with an acid-resistant layer of wax on which a design
is drawn with an etching needle. The plate is then dipped in
acid, which bites into the now exposed lines, thus etching the design into
the plate.
-
- Intaglio From the Italian
"to incise," intaglio refers to a design that is either carved
or etched with acid into the surface of a plate. The ink lies
within the recessed grooves and is transferred to the paper under pressure.
-
- Lithography In lithography,
a design is drawn with a crayon directly onto a stone or plate, which is
washed first in water and then ink. The crayon repels the water
but absorbs the ink, which is printed onto the paper.
-
- Mezzotint Here, the engraver
draws a design on the plate with a rocker, a heavy instrument with a semicircular
serrated edge that leaves tiny holes. After the plate is smoothed, lighter
tones appear, producing strong contrasts of black and white, resulting
in a rich, velvety appearance.
-
- Roulette A form of stipple
engraving, in roulette the plate is marked with a small spiked wheel, which
leaves a uniform dot pattern.
-
- State A state of a print
includes all the impressions pulled -- the technical term for printing
-- without any change being made to the plate. The first state
is the first group of impressions pulled, the second state the second,
and so on. States of a print reflect intentional or occasionally
accidental
- changes made to a plate.
-
- Gallery guide text is Copyright © Joslyn Art Museum
rev. 9/23/02, 10/8/02
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