Karl Bodmer's Landscapes

The Swiss-born Karl Bodmer trained as a painter with his uncle Johann J. Meier. His early study focused on landscapes and pastoral paintings, prevalent patterns of eighteenth and nineteenth century panoramic scenery painting followed by this teacher. In 1828, when he was nineteen, Bodmer traveled down the Rhine to Koblenz where he began to work as a souvenir artist capturing scenery for the tourist trade. One can see even in his North American landscapes the influence of the rich fertile lands of the Rhine Valley. Throughout his expedition in the United States, Bodmer recorded not only the Native people but also the surrounding landscape.

During the voyage up the Missouri River on the steamboat Yellowstone, Bodmer began painting somberly beautiful landscapes in some of his most memorable watercolors. Snags on the Missouri likely recalled for the artist his earlier work on the Rhine. One might guess that European rivers presented similar views. Some of Bodmer's more historic scenes of New Harmony are reminiscent of the Rhine Valley or Italian Piedmont scenes. The use of soft colors enhanced the rustic quality of these scenes. Bodmer's views of the Fox River near New Harmony, are romantic images of swamps, rivers and vine-like trees. This aspect of the North American wilderness interested Bodmer so much that for the rest of his career he painted similar scenes of the Barbizon forests in Europe. Perhaps the most important of these river scenes is Embouchure Du Fox River. This picture was significantly the first of Bodmer's exotic representations of the dramatic American landscape.

Audrey Swanstrom