Indians Travelling 1850

drawing, watercolor

drawing

water colours

curved letter used

possibly oil pastel

watercolor

coloured pencil

underpainting

united-states

painting painterly

watercolour bleed

watercolour illustration

watercolor

warm toned green

"Indians Travelling," a watercolor painting by Seth Eastman, depicts a group of Native Americans traveling on horseback and foot. The scene is set in a vast, open landscape with a distant mountain range. Eastman, a military officer who spent many years documenting Native American life, captures the details of their clothing, tools, and horses with accuracy and sensitivity. This artwork is a valuable record of Native American culture and a testament to Eastman's artistic talents. The painting is housed at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Comments

minneapolisinstituteofart about 1 year ago

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In this sentimentalized scene, Seth Eastman bows to an early 19th-century image of Native people as a “vanishing race.” Though he knew Native life well (he even learned the Dakota language), he could not escape his era’s romanticized views. He presented these villagers as quietly stoical, moving across barren land until they all but disappear. For added pathos, Eastman placed focus on the baby swaddled in pink and strapped to the travois, and had the child on horseback give the viewer a farewell glance. This watercolor, one of 35 works on paper by Eastman in Mia’s collection, was the basis for an illustration in Henry Rowe Schoolcraft’s massive "Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States" (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co., 1851-57).