Lot Essay
Born in Zurich in 1809, Karl Bodmer is probably best known in America for the watercolors he executed on a five thousand mile exploration up the Missouri River in 1833. Yet it was not until several years after this year-long sojurn out West that Bodmer found satisfaction and remuneration for his work. In 1847 the artist moved to Germany; first to Cologne and then to the nearby town of Horrem whose lush woods and bountiful nature provided continual artistic inspiration. In 1849, Bodmer joined Millet and other French artists in the newly discovered hamlet of Barbizon and the Forest of Fountainbleu. There the Swiss artist found a haven in which to paint woodland scenes such as Marsh Interior. Within a few years, Bodmer's forest interiors gained him recognition and praise in the Paris Salon. A contemporary critic, Theophile Gautier, explains the success of these works:
"The forest holds no mystery for him, and he has probed in it all its dark depths; he knows it like a hero of Fenimore Cooper and to his instinct he adds the soul and eye of a painter...Thus he has penetrated the intimate life of the forest and the more or less wild denizens who dwell there; he knows their pace, their habits, their loves, their retreats, the paths they frequent, and the spring where they drink. As if facing an old familiar friend, the solitude does not feel awkward before him. Karl Bodmer thus commands the forest of Europe just like the forest of America. ("Les Eeau-fortes de Karl Bodmer," L'Illustration, 47, 1966, p. 422 in W. H. Goetzmann, Karl Bodmer's America, Omaha, Nebraska, 1984, p. 369)
This painting is listed as number 76'645 in the Karl Bodmer Archives, Swiss Institute for Art Research.
"The forest holds no mystery for him, and he has probed in it all its dark depths; he knows it like a hero of Fenimore Cooper and to his instinct he adds the soul and eye of a painter...Thus he has penetrated the intimate life of the forest and the more or less wild denizens who dwell there; he knows their pace, their habits, their loves, their retreats, the paths they frequent, and the spring where they drink. As if facing an old familiar friend, the solitude does not feel awkward before him. Karl Bodmer thus commands the forest of Europe just like the forest of America. ("Les Eeau-fortes de Karl Bodmer," L'Illustration, 47, 1966, p. 422 in W. H. Goetzmann, Karl Bodmer's America, Omaha, Nebraska, 1984, p. 369)
This painting is listed as number 76'645 in the Karl Bodmer Archives, Swiss Institute for Art Research.