Mouth of Fox River (Indiana)

Artist Karl Bodmer (Swiss, 1809 - 1893)

Author Prince Maximilian of Wied (1782 - 1867)

Date1832-1834

MediumHand-colored aquatint

Dimensions17 1/4 × 23 1/2 in. (43.8 × 59.7 cm)
Framed: 21 1/4 × 25 1/8 × 1 3/4 in.
mat opening: 15 × 17 1/4 in. (38.1 × 43.8 cm)

ClassificationsPrint

Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2009.26.5

Accession number 2009.26.5

DescriptionDisbound from folio atlas volume of forty-eight plates

On View

Not on view

ProvenanceAuthor; to Frederick Schuchart, NY, 1844; (William Reese Company, New Haven, CT); purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2009
Label TextIn 1832-34, Swiss-born artist Karl Bodmer accompanied German naturalist Prince Maximilian on a 5,000-mile expedition up the Missouri River. Bodmer rendered this view of the Fox River at dusk using an ochre wash to enhance the scene. A bald eagle rests on twisted roots in the center of the image, while a thicket with old plane trees lines the foreground shore. A flock of now-extinct Carolina parakeets settles down noisily at the roost for the night. Bodmer sensitively integrated signs of human settlement into this seemingly untamed landscape: cattle and horses drink from their watering-place on the opposite bank; and a flatboat with a smoking chimney can be seen in the distance. Maximilian became very ill on the journey in November 1832. While he recovered in the utopian community of New Harmony, Indiana, Bodmer and hunter-taxidermist David Dreidoppel explored the area’s rivers to collect zoological specimens. The Prince spent five months in New Harmony where he consulted with experienced scientists and studied the leading literature on America’s frontier.