Peter Rindisbacher
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Peter Rindisbacher (12 April 1806 – 12 or 13 August 1834) was a Swiss artist. He specialized in watercolors and illustrations dealing with First Nation tribes of mid-Western Canada and the United States, mostly depictions of the
Anishinaabe The Anishinaabe (alternatively spelled Anishinabe, Anicinape, Nishnaabe, Neshnabé, Anishinaabeg, Anishinabek, Aanishnaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of C ...
,
Cree The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...
, and
Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin ( ; Dakota/ Lakota: ) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples (translati ...
, usually in group action or
genre Genre () is any style or form 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 fo ...
scenes. He seldom did individual
portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...
s; however, he painted himself into a few interior
tipi A tipi or tepee ( ) is a conical lodge tent that is distinguished from other conical tents by the smoke flaps at the top of the structure, and historically made of animal hides or pelts or, in more recent generations, of canvas stretched on ...
scenes, usually smoking a pipe. He commonly referred to the tipis as tents, such as in the title, ''Inside a Skin Tent''.


Biography

Rindisbacher was born on 12 April 1806 in
Emmental The Emmental (, ) is a valley in west-central Switzerland, forming part of the canton of Bern. It is a hilly landscape comprising the basins of the rivers Emme and Ilfis. The region is mostly devoted to farming, particularly dairy farming. The ...
, Switzerland. He 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 Assiniboia, 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 Earl of Selkirk is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, used since 1646. It has rules of inheritance subject to unusual and unique provisions. History The title was created on 14 August 1646 for William Douglas-Hamilton, Duke of Hamilton, Lord W ...
, to settle the area located near present-day
Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...
, 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 Distric ...
, 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), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...
, 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 people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...
north to Lake Winnipeg, which led to damaged crops and starvation. The Rindisbacher family relocated to
Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...
in 1826, and then settled permanently in
St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...
, Missouri, in 1829.Rindisbacher's biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
/ref>


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 people living along the
Red River Trails The Red River Trails were a network of Red River ox cart, ox cart routes connecting the Red River Colony (the "Selkirk Settlement") and Fort Garry in Canada under British Imperial control (1764-1867), British North America with the head of naviga ...
. 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 collection.


Selected paintings

* ''The Buffalo Hunt'

– * ''Inside of a Skin Tent'

– 1824, one of the earliest studies of a
tipi A tipi or tepee ( ) is a conical lodge tent that is distinguished from other conical tents by the smoke flaps at the top of the structure, and historically made of animal hides or pelts or, in more recent generations, of canvas stretched on ...
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 lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the American frontier. Traveling to the Wes ...
, who is often given credit for being the first professional painter to depict the American Indians of the
Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...
, 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 are currently held by the
Library and Archives of Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; ) is the Government of Canada, federal institution tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and national library, library is the ...
,
Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...
. Other large concentrations of his paintings are located in the collections of the West Point Museum of the
United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
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 gr ...
in
Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...
.


References


Bibliography

* Laura Peers, "'Almost True': Peter Rindisbacher's Early Images of Rupert's Land, 1821-26," ''Art History'', 32,3 (2009), 516-544.


External Links

Missouri Remembers Artists Portal
{{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