Sounding Wind 1849 - 1855

drawing, watercolor

drawing

toned paper

water colours

possibly oil pastel

watercolor

coloured pencil

underpainting

united-states

watercolour bleed

watercolour illustration

botanical art

watercolor

warm toned green

"Sounding Wind, The Chippewa Brave" is an 1849-1855 watercolor by Seth Eastman, a military officer and artist who documented Native American life in the 19th century. The artwork depicts a scene from the Ojibwe (Chippewa) tradition of "sounding wind", a spiritual practice where a shaman uses a drum to invoke spirits. Eastman's work often aimed to portray Indigenous peoples with dignity and respect, and this piece showcases the power and beauty of their spiritual practices. The watercolor, housed at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, captures a moment of deep connection to the natural world and the spirit realm.

Comments

minneapolisinstituteofart about 1 year ago

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U.S. Army Captain Seth Eastman was a trained artist who served twice on the frontier at Minnesota’s Fort Snelling, from 1830 to 1832 and again from 1841 to 1848. His extensive firsthand, peaceful encounters with Native Americans gave him extraordinary opportunities to observe their customs and practices, which he documented in his art. Most of the 35 works on paper by Eastman in Mia's collection relate to an assignment to illustrate a massive survey of Native culture by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, but several watercolors illustrate the writings of Eastman’s second wife, Mary Henderson Eastman. Often these were interpretations of Native stories she collected during her seven-year stay at Fort Snelling. This image, which shows the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) Sounding Wind defending the Dakota woman he loves, was reproduced in an 1852 publication called “The Iris,” along with Mary's story of the lovers' plight.