Grand Tower and Devil’s Bake Oven

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Artist

Karl Bodmer

Birth and death dates

1809 - 1893

Artist Nationality

Swiss

Title

Grand Tower and Devil's Bake Oven

Date

March 21, 1833

Dimensions

4 15/16 × 7 7/8 in. (12.5 × 20 cm)

Medium

Graphite on paper

Institution

Joslyn Art Museum

Credit Line

Gift of the Enron Art Foundation

Accession Number

1986.49.122.a

Rights (i.e. copyright information)

Joslyn Art Museum

Photographer credit

Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019

Commentary

Past the mouth of the Muddy River above Hanging Dog Island on the afternoon of March 21, the travelers approached a feature known as the Grand Tower and, near it, the Devil's Bake Oven. Maximilian described the tower as an isolated, drumlike formation between sixty and eighty feet high. Of the Devil's Bake Oven he wrote, "On the right bank just opposite ... there are three or four very strange rocks full of fissures and ravines... . The front one is called the Devil's Bake Oven. ... At the Bake Oven stands a nice farm house.... (Mr. Bodmer sketched the Grand Tower and found this place highly interesting and picturesque)."

References in Journal

March 21, 1833

Labels:

riverscape , Mississippi River , Illinois

Approximate Depicted Location:

Cape Girardeau, Missouri