Seth Eastman: A Portfolio of North American Indians [Hardcover]

Sarah E. Boehme (Author), Christian F. Feest (Author), Patricia Condon Johnston (Author), Seth Eastman (Author), Minn.) Afton Historical Society Press (Afton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0963933841 | ISBN-13: 978-0963933843 | Edition: 1st

A LANDMARK PUBLICATION that showcases the foremost collection of watercolors by the premier pictorial historian of the American Indian in the nineteenth century. A career U.S. Army officer assigned to frontier duty, including a seven-year stint at Fort Snelling in the 1840s, Eastman preserved a visual record of Native American life, which was then undergoing rapid change.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This book about Indians is also the story of watercolorist Seth Eastman (1808^-75) and industrialist James J. Hill (1838^-1916). Assigned to Fort Snelling on what, in the early 1800s, was the frontier, Eastman captured the daily lives of the Ojibway and Dakota peoples in expressive works on paper that Hill later collected and housed in the library he established in St. Paul. The accompanying essays concentrate on the two white men, but the book's reproductions constitute an entirely different work. In them we see not the romanticizations of Indian life so many artists of the period give us, but the real lives of those people as they gather rice, fish through the ice, mourn their dead, and heal their sick. The drawing of a young woman serenely sitting, in the distinctively modest way of Ojibway women of the era, in the shade of a menstrual lodge while her village bustles in the background exemplifies the precious documentation Eastman made. Pleasingly composed and delicately colored, Eastman's works emphasize the ways of a people whose collective life would soon be radically changed. Patricia Monaghan

Product Details

• Hardcover: 171 pages
• Publisher: Afton Historical Society Press; 1st edition (June 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963933841
• ISBN-13: 978-0963933843
• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 12.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,107,757 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb addition to any Native American collection, July 5, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seth Eastman: A Portfolio of North American Indians (Hardcover)

Seth Eastman: A Portfolio Of North American Indians showcases fifty-six watercolor paintings by a career army officer who was assigned to frontier duty (including a seven-year stint at Fort Snelling in the 1840s). The artist was also a gifted pictorial historian of the Native Americans who was scrupulous in his accuracy of portraying the whole complex fabric of Native American dress, culture, and daily life. This outstanding compendium of his work ranges from temporary summer encampments to winter villages; courting and marriage customs; the making of maple sugar, protecting cornfields from birds, spearing fish, gathering wild rice; the menstrual lodge, how Dakota women sat, the medicine man; as well as breaking camp and traveling. Enhanced with informative, insightful, descriptive commentaries by Sara E. Boehme, Christian E. Feest, and Patricia Condon Johnston, Seth Eastman: A Portfolio Of North American Indians is a superb addition to any Native American collection and will prove to be of immense interest to students of the 19th Century American art history as well.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Coffee Table and Beyond, April 30, 2001

By 

Keith Reynolds (St. Paul Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seth Eastman: A Portfolio of North American Indians (Hardcover)

Perhaps more than any other individual, the paintings of Seth Eastman have become associated with the pictorial history of early Minnesota. Extremely detailed and devoid of the romanticism which often clouds later and, too frequently, lesser works, Eastman's paintings and sketches beautifully and accurately capture the landscapes and lifestyles of the Minnesota Frontier.

The written narrative offered by Boehme and Johnston provides both interesting details and a historical context which enhances the paintings. However, the true power of this book remains the illustrations themselves. Anyone interested in Minnesota history, Native American history, or American frontier and landscape artistry will find this book thoroughly enjoyable as an addition to their coffee table. For those with more than a passing interest in these subjects, this collection of Eastman's paintings provides a valuable historical resource beyond the its coffee table appeal.