Karl Bodmer

Who was Karl Bodmer?

Johann Carl Bodmer was a printmaker, etcher, lithographer, zinc engraver, draftsman, painter, illustrator and hunter. Known as Karl Bodmer in literature and paintings, as a Swiss and French citizen his name has been listed as Johann Karl Bodmer and Jean-Charles Bodmer respectively. After 1843, likely as a result of his son Charles-Henry Barbizon, he began to sign his works K Bodmer.

Karl Bodmer was well known in Germany for his watercolors, drawings and aquatints of cities and landscapes of the Rhine, Mosel and Lahn rivers. As a member of the Barbizon School - a French landscape painting group from the mid-19th century, he created many oil paintings with animal motifs as well as wood engravings, drawings, and book illustrations.

Best known in the United States as a painter who captured the American West of the 19th century with extremely accurate depictions of its inhabitants. He accompanied German explorer Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied from 1832 through 1834 on his Missouri River expedition.