Bodmer, Karl

Dacota Woman and Assiniboin Girl. [Tab. 9]. Paris, Coblenz, and London: [1839-1842]

Handcolored aquatint (sheet size: ♋619 x 457 mm). Engraving by Desmadryl after Bodmer, blindstamp. 

A com⛎posit🍌e from drawings made by Bodmer on 1 June 1833 and October 1833.

The woman is Chan-Chä-Uiá-Teüin ("Woman of the Crow Nation"), whose portrait was painted at Fort Pierre. Her dress is trimmed with white beads and has a fringe of twisted metal cones ("tinklers") at the hem, which would have made a musical sound as she walked. Over the dress she wears a painted summer robe of buffalo skin with the hair removed, the colorful pattern on the robe is called a box and border style. The child is an unusual subject for Bodmer, a little Blackfoot girl but living with the Ass🍰iniboins, perhaps a captive taken during a skirmish. She wears leggings and ornaments that are smaller ve♎rsions of those worn by adults.

Karl Bodmer's images show great versatility and technical virtuosity and give us a uniquely accomplished and detailed picture of a previously little understood (and 🥃soon to vanish) way of life. 

REFERENCE

Graff 4648; Howes M443a; Pilling 2521; Sabin 47014;ꩵ Wagner-𒁏Camp 76:1