The time of the great discovery of the North American continent was actually long gone in the 19th century - it was more about the shift of the "frontier", the border area to the "Wild West", with: Gold Rush, expeditions to the West Coast, settler trails from the American East Coast to the "Wild West." And it was about the conquest and seizure of the Midwest, the inner space of today's USA and the frontier region to today's Canada.
In the midst of it as a kind of official painter of the U.S. campaign of conquest: James Otto Lewis (1799-1858), son of German emigrants. His father came from Crailsheim in Baden-Württemberg and had his name changed in America from "Ludwig" to "Lewis". James Otto Lewis was born in Philadelphia in the eastern United States and trained as an engraver, painter and draftsman. In 1819, he moved to the "Wild West" in Detroit. The American War of Independence had not been long in coming; by 1820, the new United States was gradually taking over the territories around the Great Lakes - from British troops and from Native Americans. The British retreated to Canada, and the "Indian tribes" were defeated in several campaigns. James Otto Lewis accompanied the "expeditions" to the "frontier" in Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan and documented in his paintings surrender negotiations with the indigenous tribes, including the Sioux, Sauk, Potawatamie, Chippewa and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago). Beginning in 1823, he portrayed some of the leaders of the tribes on behalf of the American "Indian Bureau" and, in a few prints, other members, such as Ta-Ma-Kake-Toke ("The Woman Who Spoke First; a Chippeway Squaw (Mourning)"). In 1833 he portrayed Blackhawk, a famous Sauk chief, in Detroit dressed like a middle-class American in the distinguished skirt typical of the period.
In some respects, his portraits seem technically and artistically striking, awkward and childlike. Indigenous leaders are usually fancifully decked out, depicted with "war paint" and Europeanized facial features. Some of Lewis's portraits found their way into the Indian Affairs Office collection ("History of the Indian Tribes of North America"), and James Otto Lewis published his own lithograph collection of 72 color prints, "The Aboriginal Port Folio," in 1835/1836. They are one of the earliest documents of the Midwest's native peoples near the Great Lakes. For the U.S. identity that was just forming, the "Frontier," the stories of the conquest and settlement of the "Wild West" by settlers of diverse origins, form an important part. This includes the portrayal of indigenous culture: idealized, defeated, and disappearing. In the mid-19th century, people began to take more and more interest in their own origins and their own American land. Portraits such as those of James Otto Lewis and his contemporaries, the Americans George Catlin and Seth Eastman or the two Germans Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied and Karl Bodmer, as documents of the disappearing indigenous culture of Ur-America, as an image of one's own Americanization and as the first artistic expression of American identity, certainly corresponded to the taste of the times. James Otto Lewis returned to the East Coast and died impoverished and forgotten in New York State in 1858. The originals of his prints were destroyed in a fire in 1865.
The time of the great discovery of the North American continent was actually long gone in the 19th century - it was more about the shift of the "frontier", the border area to the "Wild West", with: Gold Rush, expeditions to the West Coast, settler trails from the American East Coast to the "Wild West." And it was about the conquest and seizure of the Midwest, the inner space of today's USA and the frontier region to today's Canada.
In the midst of it as a kind of official painter of the U.S. campaign of conquest: James Otto Lewis (1799-1858), son of German emigrants. His father came from Crailsheim in Baden-Württemberg and had his name changed in America from "Ludwig" to "Lewis". James Otto Lewis was born in Philadelphia in the eastern United States and trained as an engraver, painter and draftsman. In 1819, he moved to the "Wild West" in Detroit. The American War of Independence had not been long in coming; by 1820, the new United States was gradually taking over the territories around the Great Lakes - from British troops and from Native Americans. The British retreated to Canada, and the "Indian tribes" were defeated in several campaigns. James Otto Lewis accompanied the "expeditions" to the "frontier" in Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan and documented in his paintings surrender negotiations with the indigenous tribes, including the Sioux, Sauk, Potawatamie, Chippewa and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago). Beginning in 1823, he portrayed some of the leaders of the tribes on behalf of the American "Indian Bureau" and, in a few prints, other members, such as Ta-Ma-Kake-Toke ("The Woman Who Spoke First; a Chippeway Squaw (Mourning)"). In 1833 he portrayed Blackhawk, a famous Sauk chief, in Detroit dressed like a middle-class American in the distinguished skirt typical of the period.
In some respects, his portraits seem technically and artistically striking, awkward and childlike. Indigenous leaders are usually fancifully decked out, depicted with "war paint" and Europeanized facial features. Some of Lewis's portraits found their way into the Indian Affairs Office collection ("History of the Indian Tribes of North America"), and James Otto Lewis published his own lithograph collection of 72 color prints, "The Aboriginal Port Folio," in 1835/1836. They are one of the earliest documents of the Midwest's native peoples near the Great Lakes. For the U.S. identity that was just forming, the "Frontier," the stories of the conquest and settlement of the "Wild West" by settlers of diverse origins, form an important part. This includes the portrayal of indigenous culture: idealized, defeated, and disappearing. In the mid-19th century, people began to take more and more interest in their own origins and their own American land. Portraits such as those of James Otto Lewis and his contemporaries, the Americans George Catlin and Seth Eastman or the two Germans Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied and Karl Bodmer, as documents of the disappearing indigenous culture of Ur-America, as an image of one's own Americanization and as the first artistic expression of American identity, certainly corresponded to the taste of the times. James Otto Lewis returned to the East Coast and died impoverished and forgotten in New York State in 1858. The originals of his prints were destroyed in a fire in 1865.
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