University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for

Winter 1985

Review of The Rocky Mountains: A Vision for Artists in the Nineteenth Century By Patricia Trenton and Peter H. Hassrick & Karl Bodmer's America Introduction by william H. Goetzmann

Richard W. Etulain University of New Mexico

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly

Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons

Etulain, Richard W., "Review of The Rocky Mountains: A Vision for Artists in the Nineteenth Century By Patricia Trenton and Peter H. Hassrick & Karl Bodmer's America Introduction by william H. Goetzmann" (1985). Great Plains Quarterly. 1822. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1822

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. BOOK REVIEWS

REVIEW ESSAY RECENT INTERPRETATIONS OF WESTERN AMERICAN ART

The Rocky Mountains: A Vision for Artists in about the nineteenth- and twentieth-century the Nineteenth Century. By Patricia Trenton American West. and Peter H. Hassrick. Norman: University In this regard, The Rocky Mountains is note­ of Oklahoma Press, 1983. Illustrations, notes, worthy because it adds much to one's under­ bibliography, index. xix + 418 pp. $65.00. standing of western frontier art. Patricia Trenton Published in association with the Buffalo Bill and Peter Hassrick, art historians with several Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming. publications on western art to their credit, con­ centrate here on one subregion of the West-the Karl Bodmer's America. Introduction by wil­ Rocky Mountains broadly considered-and one liam H. Goetzmann. Annotations by David major topic, landscape depictions of the Rock­ C. Hunt and Marsha V. Gallagher. Artist's ies. In discussing landscapes painted from about Biography by William]. Orr. Lincoln: Joslyn 1820 to 1900, the authors provide detailed Art Museum and University of Nebraska commentaries on artists who traveled with ex­ Press, 1984. List of plates, fpreword, preface. plorers like Stephen H. Long and ] ohn C. xi + 376 pp. $65.00. Fremont, with European and American patrons, with government surveys, with overland trail Historians have generally paid less attention and other private groups, and who worked as to western art than to other facets of western reporters for magazines. American cultural history such as literature, The Rocky Mountains includes discussions religion, and education. Perhaps this lacuna of dozens of artists but devotes separate chap­ results from historians' lack of knowledge ters to the well-known artists Albert Bierstadt about art history or from their reluctance to and Thomas Moran and contains extended com­ venture into the tangled thickets of art criti­ mentaries on such painters as Samuel Seymour, cism. At any rate, except for the useful book­ Alfred Jacob Miller, Edward and Richard Kern, length studies of ] ohn C. Ewers and Robert ] ohn Mix Stanley, and Thomas Worthington Taft (both nonhistorians) and the less extensive Whittredge. Since this study emphasizes land­ but probing commentaries of William Goetz­ scape paintings, it omits extensive treatments mann and two of his students, Brian Dippie of George Catlin, Frederic Remington, and and] oseph C. Porter, historians only occasion­ Charles Russell, who were more intrigued by ally discuss artistic treatments of the American western characters than by western settings. West. 1 Yet the two books under review and Particularly noteworthy in this volume is other publications appearing in the last few the extensive research of Trenton and Hassrick. years suggest that a more analytical group of Although this book is in part a catalogue rai­ commentators is at work on western art. Their sonne for a traveling exhibit of western land­ studies-and the two books cited here-promise scapes that opened at the Whitney Gallery in much-needed reevaluations of artistic works the Buffalo Bill Historical Center at Cody,

66 BOOK REVIEWS 67

Wyoming, in early summer 1983, the volume after his return from the New World, Goetz­ transcends that genre. In addition to providing mann analyzes several of Bodmer's major paint­ a pleasing pictorial survey of western landscape ings, detailing specific cultural influences on painting-54 color and 129 black-and-white these and other works. These interpretations plates-the authors display extraordinary talents of individual paintings and Goetzmann's apt as historical researchers. They make extensive discussions of cultural and intellectual currents use of general works by Ewers, Taft, and Goetz­ that helped shape Bodmer's art are the most mann and of the book-length studies by Gor­ penetrating scholarly contribution of this don Henricks, Thurman Wilkins, and Carol volume. By stressing Bodmer's interest in varied Clark on Bierstadt and Moran, and they also American landscapes, including his little-known have utilized obscure printed sources, unpub­ work on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and lished dissertations, and numerous manuscript their wild, tangled shorelines, and other aspects sources in archives throughout the United of western scenery, Goetzmann adds much to States and Europe. No other general study of the limited description of Bodmer as a painter western art has been more thoroughly researched of frontier Indians. Indeed, in its illuminating than this very appealing work. The footnotes insights, in its emphasis on these new vistas and bibliography, which extend to more than of Bodmer's career, and in its analytical quality, sixty oversized pages, will be a handy biblio­ Goetzmann's essay is a paradigm for the kind of graphical source for students and scholars inter­ evaluation that western art merits and needs. ested in western art and cultural history. If the annotations of Hunt and Gallagher for Moreover, Trenton and Hassrick do not the plates are more descriptive and less insight­ limit their narrative to biographical commen­ ful than Goetzmann's superb essay, they none­ taries and historical backgrounds in American theless provide useful historical and scenic and continental artistic traditions; they also pro­ details for the chronologically arranged paint­ vide critical readings of the major paintings they ings. These brief commentaries date Bodmer's discuss. General readers as well as specialists paintings and supply particulars of his trip with in western art will find here many provocative Prince Maximilian in 1832-34, but they might and useful evaluations. also have added information on the artistic Quite different in form and approach is traditions that influenced Bodmer's work. In Karl Bodmer's America, which follows an or­ the final section, Orr adds details on Bodmer's ganization typical of most recent studies of early years and much new material on the western art.2 A large, well-bound, and hand­ artist's final years in Germany and France, all some book containing 359 plates-257 full of which is based on thorough use of Prince color and 102 black and white-this volume of Maximilian's manuscript diaries and correspon­ Bodmer's American paintings is divided into dence between the prince and Bodmer. These three parts: Williarri Goetzmann's "The Man contributions, particularly the probing com­ who Stopped to Paint America" (pp. 1-23), ments by Goetzmann and the eye-catching "The Plates" with annotations by David C. cdlor reproductions, make this a notable vol­ Hunt and Marsha V. Gallagher (pp. 25-347), ume for scholars and general readers. and William J. Orr's "Karl Bodmer: The Artist's Many books on western art have followed a Life" (pp. 349-76). Together these sections format similar to that of Karl Bodmer's Amer­ supply the best study of Bodmer's interpreta­ ica, with major stress on samples of an artist's tion of the American frontier. work (at least as many in color as costs allow) Goetzmann's overview of Bodmer is particu­ and minor emphasis on analysis of these artistic larly impressive. In addition to providing brief productions. One hopes, however, that these commentary on Bodmer's artistic training, his emphases will be reversed, allowing more schol­ acquaintance and travels with his sponsor arly commentary on individual painters and Prince Maximilian of Wied, and Bodmer's years paintings and additional discussions of the 68 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1985 cultural and intellectual backgrounds. A few Modernist Painting in New Mexico 1913-1935, recent volumes suggest that this much-needed she treats such artists as Andrew Dasburg, John change is gradually occurring. Marin, Georgia O'Keeffe, Maynard Dixon, and Brian W. Dippie's Remington and Russell, Victor Higgins in a more penetrating fashion. for example, seems at first glance solely a Udall also makes good use of manuscript and visually appealing collection of Sid W. Richard­ other original sources in her analyses of these son's paintings by these two well-known west­ painters.6 ern artists.3 It is much more, however, for Perhaps the most systematic work on Dippie practices what he preaches when he modern western artists has been that on the argues, "Few things are more desperately needed midwestern triumvirate, Thomas Hart Benton, in western art studies than critical comparisons John Steuart Curry, and Grant Wood. No artist to artist . . . and within each artist's recent scholar has produced a better study of oeuvre" (p. 15). While a bit less analytical than Benton than Matthew Baigell's Thomas Hart Dippie, Carol Clark adds valuable cultural con­ Benton (1973), but Joseph S. Czestochowski text in her readable introductory commentary has compiled a useful selection of brief essays in Thomas Moran: Watercolors of the American and sections from longer works in his study West. Equally revealing is Martha Kingsbury's of two of the landscape painters, John Steu­ discussion of four artists of the Pacific North­ art Curry and Grant Wood: A Portrait of Rural west-Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Kenneth America. These helpful selections, plus an Callahan, and Guy Anderson-who deserve appealing collection of black-and-white and much more attention.4 color reproductions, add up to a rewarding In still another recent publication, Taos: A book on these regional figures. Even more ana­ Painter's Dream, Patricia Janis Broder produces lytical and penetrating is Wanda Corn's Grant the best general study of the notable artists Wood: The Regionalist Vision, a revealing bio­ who congregated in Taos, New Mexico, in the graphical and interpretive study of Wood's early decades of this century.> One could wish, significance as an artist. The book places Wood nonetheless, for more analytical readings of in the larger context of regionalism and includes individual paintings in Broder's handsome a probing section on American Gothic as an book. Much more notable in its handling of artistic work and a popular icon. Corn utilizes historical backgrounds and also impressive in numerous manuscript sources and provides its nearly exhaustive utilization of manuscript excellent illustrations in her fine work.7 materials is David J. Weber's Richard Kern: Finally, if historians and art critics are to Expeditionary Artist in the Far Southwest, a continue the high level of work displayed in the study that William Goetzmann rightly calls two books under review and in the earlier first-rate. 5 studies of such scholars as John Ewers and Wil­ If historians and art historians have recent­ liam Goetzmann, they must keep their topics ly begun to provide penetrating studies of in historical perspective and be more analytical nineteenth-century frontier artists, they have, and evaluative. Moreover, they must ask more for the most part, paid much less attention to questions of their materials. Do western paint­ painters of the twentieth-century West. Patricia ers, for example, illustrate major trends in Janis Broder's The American West: The Modern American and western American cultural his­ Vision is an introduction to some artists of the tory; or, to expand the regional context of the modern period, but the author does little with question, does the historiography of Frederick the Far West, the Northwest, or the Great Jackson Turner, Walter Prescott Webb, and Plains and, in turn, overemphasizes the South­ J ames Malin help explain regional sociocultural west, the focus of most of her earlier studies. forces that have influenced the works of many While Sharyn Rohlfsen Udall utilizes a bio­ western artists? These and other similar ques­ graphical approach similar to Broder's in tions must be raised; indeed, scholars such as BOOK REVIEWS 69

Goetzmann and his students are on the right University of Texas Press, 1982). For an excel­ track in calling for more interpretation and lent cultural analysis of Remington and his analysis in studies of western art. One hopes, times, see Ben Merchant Vorpahl, Frederic in short, that the gradually increasing number Remington and the West: With the Eye of the of conceptual studies of western artists will Mind (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1978). On the other hand, Peggy and Harold Samuels continue-even increase-so that scholars and in their Frederic Remington: A Biography general readers alike can enjoy academically (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1982) provide sound as well as handsomely produced studies exhaustively detailed chapters but seem reluc­ of western art. This balance between analysis tant to analyze and evaluate the facts they have and appealing reproduction should be the major gathered. goal of forthcoming research and publication 4. Clark, Thomas Moran: Watercolors of the on western American art. American West (Austin: University of Texas Press for the Amon Carter Museum of Western NOTES Art, 1980); Martha Kingsbury, "Four Artists in the Northwest Tradition," Northwest Tradi­ 1. Of Goetzmann's several notable works, tions (Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1978). see especially his illuminating comments on 5. Broder, Taos: A Painter's Dream (Boston: western art in Exploration and Empire: The Ex­ Little, Brown for New York Graphic Society, plorer and Scientist in the Winning of the 1980); Weber, Richard Kern: Expeditionary American West (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Artist in the Far Southwest, 1848-1853 (Albu­ 1966) and his essay "The West as Romantic querque: University of New Mexico Press, Horizon" in The West as Romantic Horizon 1985). (Omaha, Nebr.: Center for Western Studies, 6. Broder, The American West: The Modern Joslyn Art Museum, 1981). Porter has a fine Vision (Boston: Little, Brown for New York essay, "The Romantic Horizon in History and Graphic Society, 1984); Udall, Modernist Paint­ Ethnology," in The West as Romantic Horizon ing in New Mexico, 1913-1935 (Albuquerque: and a brief, useful essay on Prince Maximilian University of New Mexico Press, 1984). of Wied in Views of a Vanishing Frontier 7. Czestochowski, John Steuart Curry and (Omaha, Nebr.: Center for Western Studies, Grant Wood: A Portrait of Rural America Joslyn Art Museum, 1984). Dippie has edited (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1981); a new edition of "Paper Talk": Charlie Russell's Corn, Grant Wood: The Regionalist Vision American West (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983). 1979), published stimulating essays on Frederic The starting point for research on Benton, Remington, and is at work on a study of gov­ Curry, and Wood is the very helpful biblio­ ernment support of early western American art. graphical listing in Mary Scholz Guedon, 2. See, for example, Ron Tyler, ed., Alfred Regionalist Art: Thomas Hart Benton, John Jacob Miller: Artist on the Oregon Trail (Fort Steuart Curry, and Grant Wood: A Guide to Worth: Amon Carter Museum, 1982), and D. the Literature (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Duane Cummins, William Robinson Leigh: Press, 1982). Western Artist (Norman: University of Okla­ homa Press; Tulsa: Thomas Gilcrease Institute RICHARD W. ETULAIN of American History and Art, 1980). Department of History 3. Dippie, Remington and Russell (Austin: University of New Mexico