Sioux Camp

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Artist

Karl Bodmer

Birth and death dates

1809 - 1893

Artist Nationality

Swiss

Title

Sioux Camp

Date

June 1833

Dimensions

7 7/16 × 10 7/16 in. (18.9 × 26.5 cm)

Medium

Watercolor on paper

Institution

Joslyn Art Museum

Credit Line

Gift of the Enron Art Foundation

Accession Number

1986.49.375

Rights (i.e. copyright information)

Joslyn Art Museum

Photographer credit

Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019

Commentary

Conflicting inscriptions are associated with this watercolor, one identifying the camp as Sioux, the other as Assiniboin. A woodcut obviously based on this painting illustrates the section of Travels in the Interior of North America dealing with the stay at Fort Pierre in June, 1833, and the watercolor therefore most likely depicts one of the Sioux camps that Maximilian and Bodmer visited at that time. The scene is a domestic one, with smoke rising from the smoke hole of the central tipi and a woman in the foreground scraping or softening a small hide. Maximilian was told that the construction of a single tipi required about fourteen large buffalo hides. These and all the other skins required for clothing, containers, and trade were laboriously tanned by the women, who did "all the work" while the men led "a comfortable and easy life."

References in Journal

May 26, 1833

Labels:

Fort Pierre, South Dakota

Approximate Depicted Location:

Sioux Camp, Fort Pierre, South Dakota