Bodmer Pl. 19, The Interior of the Hut of a Mandan Chief
Oppenheimer Editions Print
17 3/8" x 23 7/8"
Limited edition of 200
Published 2011
Blind embossed with the Oppenheimer Editions and The Newberry Library logos
Travels in the Interior of North America, The Newberry Library Edition
Karl Bodmer (1809—1893), a talented Swiss artist, journeyed with Prince Maximilian, a German scientist, to record the daily life of Native Americans on the western frontier. This expedition was made in preparation for publication of Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832—1834. As they traversed the territory between Boston and present-day central Montana, Maximilian collected specimens, and documented his scientific observations of the flora and fauna and the tribal life they met. Karl Bodmer visually recorded their findings in beautifully detailed watercolor paintings. Their nearly ten year collaboration continued in Europe in 1834. In Germany, Maximilian completed writing the text from his copious notes, and in Paris, Bodmer focused on the subtleties of printing 81 hand-colored aquatint engravings for their lavish folio.
The complete work of Karl Bodmer’s Illustrations to Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied’s Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832—1834 includes 81 prints comprised of 48 folio-sized prints and 33 vignettes from the Newberry Library’s rare folio. Every print is hand-embossed with the Newberry Library logo and that of Oppenheimer Editions, the publisher, and also numbered and stamped with the signature of the president of the Newberry Library. Each actual-size print is on acid-free, cotton rag fine art paper.
Established in 1999, Oppenheimer Editions has partnered with prestigious museums to make prints from their holdings. Works from the New-York Historical Society’s unrivaled collections of John James Audubon’s watercolors and the Hudson River School paintings are examples of art that otherwise would be unobtainable. Among the institutional collections we have partnered with are the American Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum, and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. These are not mere reproductions. They are limited-edition fine art prints made with the finest quality archival pigments on rag watercolor paper and executed to exacting standards.