Peter Rindisbacher (12 April 1806 – 12 or 13 August 1834) was a Swiss artist who specialized in
watercolors
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
and illustrations dealing with
First Nation
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
tribes of mid-Western Canada and the United States, mostly depictions of the
Anishinaabe
The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawat ...
,
Cree, and
Sioux, usually in group action or
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
scenes. He seldom did individual
portrait
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...
s; however, he painted himself into a few interior
tipi
A tipi , often called a lodge in English, is a conical tent, historically made of animal hides or pelts, and in more recent generations of canvas, stretched on a framework of wooden poles. The word is Siouan, and in use in Dakhótiyapi, Lakȟó ...
scenes, usually smoking a
pipe
Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to:
Objects
* Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules
** Piping, the use of pipes in industry
* Smoking pipe
** Tobacco pipe
* Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circular ...
. He commonly referred to the tipis as tents, such as in the title, ''Inside a Skin Tent''.
Biography
Rindisbacher emigrated from
Switzerland to western Canada with his family when he was fifteen. The family was recruited by an agent of
Red River Colony
The Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement), also known as Assinboia, was a colonization project set up in 1811 by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, on of land in British North America. This land was granted to Douglas by the Hudson's Bay ...
, established by the
Earl of Selkirk, to settle the area located near present-day
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...
, Manitoba. Lord Selkirk's land grant, called
Assiniboia
Assiniboia District refers to two historical districts of Canada's Northwest Territories. The name is taken from the Assiniboine First Nation.
Historical usage
''For more information on the history of the provisional districts, see also Distri ...
, was administered by a governor and council but, as all the colony's officials had connections with the
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...
, the colony was effectively an arm of Hudson's Bay's operations. The colony faced difficulties due to a disastrous flood of the
Red River, on the eastern boundary of
North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, So ...
north to Lake Winnipeg, which led to damaged crops and starvation.
The Rindisbacher family relocated to
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
in 1826, and then settled permanently in
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
, in 1829.
[Rindisbacher's biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online'']
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Career
From the age of fifteen until his death, possibly of cholera, at age 28, Rindisbacher was a producing artist.[ He began working with charcoal as a young boy, with the encouragement of his father, and received one year of formal training with artist Jakob Samuel Weibel in Switzerland.] He executed sketches and watercolors of his family's journey from Europe to western Canada, life and company officials in the Red River Colony, and Indians and animals in west-central Canada and the midwestern United States, including the Chippewa and Metis
Metis or Métis may refer to:
Ethnic groups
* Métis, recognized Indigenous communities in Canada and America whose distinct culture and language emerged after early intermarriage between First Nations peoples and early European settlers, prima ...
people living along the Red River Trails
The Red River Trails were a network of ox cart routes connecting the Red River Colony (the "Selkirk Settlement") and Fort Garry in British North America with the head of navigation on the Mississippi River in the United States. These trade route ...
. At age twenty-three, upon moving to St. Louis, Rindisbacher established an artist's studio, where he also produced illustrations for magazines and book covers, and contributed to the History of the Indian Tribes of North America
The ''History of the Indian Tribes of North America'' is a three-volume collection of Native American biographies and accompanying lithograph portraits, originally published in the United States from 1836 to 1844 by Thomas McKenney and James Hal ...
collection.
Paintings, selected
* ''The Buffalo Hunt'
- circa 1822-24.
* ''Inside of a Skin Tent'
1824, one of the earliest studies of a tipi
A tipi , often called a lodge in English, is a conical tent, historically made of animal hides or pelts, and in more recent generations of canvas, stretched on a framework of wooden poles. The word is Siouan, and in use in Dakhótiyapi, Lakȟó ...
by a non-Indian. Library and Archives Canada Collection.
* ''Indian hunters pursuing buffalo in the early spring'
1822, painted when the artist was age sixteen.
* ''A Halfcast and his Two Wives'' based on a sketch from about 1825.[Van Kirk, Sylvia. ''Many Tender Ties''. (Winnipeg: Watsn and Dwyer Publishing Ltd., 1980) p. 100]
* ''Hunting the Buffalo'
1836, frontispiece for Volume 1 of the ''History of the Indian Tribes of North America'' by Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall, 1836.
* ''War dance of the Sauks and Foxes'
1834, frontispiece for Volume 2 of the ''History of the Indian Tribes of North America'' by Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall, 1838.
* '' Chippewa mode of traveling in spring and summer'
1825, West Point Museum Collection.
Gallery
File:Extremely wearisome journeys at the portages.jpg, Extremely wearisome journeys at the portages (1821)
File:Cold night camp on the inhospitable shores of Lake Winnipeg.jpg, Cold night camp on the inhospitable shores of Lake Winnipeg (1821)
File:Rindisbacher fishing 1821 large (1).png, Winter Fishing on the Ice (1821)
File:Red River summer view 1822.jpg, Summer View in the environs of the Company Fort Douglas on the Red River (1822)
File:Buffalo Hunting in the Summer 1822.jpg, Buffalo Hunting in the summer (1822)
File:Colonists on the Red River in North America.png, Colonists on the Red River in North America (1822)
File:Individual of the Sautaux First Nation, standing in a winter landscape, wearing a winter cape, and holding a bow and arrows.png, Saulteaux standing in a winter landscape (1822)
File:Pembina Forts 1822.jpg, Pembina Forts in 1822
File:Hudson's Bay Company express canoe.jpg, Hudson's Bay Company officials in an express canoe crossing a lake (1825)
File:The Red Lake Chief making a speech to the Governor of Red River at Fort Douglas.png, The Red Lake Chief making a speech to the Governor of Red River at Fort Douglas (1825)
Legacy
Having spent fifteen years painting the native people of central North America, Rindisbacher died on 13 August 1834, several days after attending a militia meeting in St. Louis. At the time, George Catlin
George Catlin (July 26, 1796 – December 23, 1872) was an American adventurer, lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the Old West.
Traveling to the American West five times during the 183 ...
, who is often given credit for being the first professional painter to depict the American Indians of the Great Plains, was only four years through his six years of western expeditions in 1830-1836. As a professional painter, Rindisbacher preceded Catlin in the west by at least ten years, and is considered the first resident professional artist west of the Great Lakes.[ Rindisbacher is known to have produced more than 124 paintings during his career. Forty of his ]artworks
A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature ...
are currently held by the Library and Archives of Canada, Ottawa. Other large concentrations of his paintings are located in the collections of the West Point Museum
The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...
of the United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...
and the Gilcrease Museum
Gilcrease Museum, also known as the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, is a museum northwest of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma housing the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art of the American West, as well as a gro ...
in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...
.
References
Bibliography
* Laura Peers, "'Almost True': Peter Rindisbacher's Early Images of Rupert's Land, 1821-26," ''Art History'', 32,3 (2009), 516-544.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rindisbacher, Peter
1806 births
1834 deaths
Swiss emigrants to Canada
Artists of the American West
American people of Swiss-German descent
19th-century Canadian painters
Canadian male painters
19th-century Canadian male artists