Bruce Gimelson
PAINTINGS * AUTOGRAPHS * HISTORICAL OBJECTS
P.O. Box 440, Garrison, New York 10524-0440
(845) 424-4689—Phone ~•~ (845) 424-4689—Cell (914) 393-1462 ~•~ [email protected]

www.brucegimelson.com

Buying, Selling, and Trading Since 1964


KARL BODMER, after, 1809-1893

Péhriska-Rúhpa. Moennitari Warrior in the Costume of the Dog Danse

Péhriska-Rúhpa was a Moennitari (or Hidatsa) warrior. He is captured in full regalia in this painting as the leader of the Dog Danse Society in his village. It was the fourth of seven societies starting with “foolish dogs” into which young braves could gain entry around ten to fifteen years of age, and ending with the Society of Black-Tailed Deer for men over fifty. Each level was filled and a warrior could not join the next level until someone was ready to move to the society over his.

This image was first accomplished as a watercolor, and then as an aquatint engraving by René Rollet that first appeared in Maximilian, Prince of Wied’s Travels in the Interior of North America. It is well documented how the Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied (1782-1867) hired Karl Bodmer, a Swiss- Austrian artist, to accompany him to America, into the region where Wyoming and Montana are today, and document the Mandan, Mintari, and Crow tribes who became lost cultures.

According to the authority on Bodmer, this iconic image is one of only two early oil paintings known depicting images from the Wied portfolio. The painting is relined with a window to the original canvas showing the stamp of Theo Kelley, a New York canvas seller, probably around mid-1840’s but possibly earlier. While we cannot attribute this important painting to Karl Bodmer, it is much more than a faithful representation of the original image; the feathers, bow, arrows, leggings, and headdress are precise and the background has been expanded.

Measuring approximately 20 3/16" x 15 3/16" with possibly the original stretcher, the painting is housed in an old frame. From my research it is the earliest known representation in oil of Péhriska-Rúhpa and the only one of this early period found in private hands. Discovered in an old collection in upstate New York in 1999, it had resided there for nearly fifty years. A showpiece that would be a cornerstone in any Plains Indian collection.

Exhibition: This great painting was on loan to the residence of the American Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, where it hung in the official dining room during his tenure (2005), placed between a painting of Chief Joseph Brant (which we also handled) and a portrait of Daniel Boone by Chester Harding.


Thomas Jefferson, as Secretary of State Signs the An Important Tax Act Consolidating and Revising All Duties on Wine, Spirits, and Manufactured Articles

THOMAS JEFFERSON. DS, 4 full printed pages, folio, Washington, May 2, 1792. Signed in type by Jonathan Trumbull as Speaker of the House, Richard Henry Lee, as President pro tempore of the Senate, and George Washington, as President. A long detailed Act, “for raising a further sum of Money for the Protection of the Frontiers and for other purposes therein mentioned….” Pictured is page FOUR of the four-page document. Please see my website for a complete description and further photographs of the entire document.


AN UNKNOWN PORTRAIT OF ANDREW JACKSON


[American School] Period bust pencil drawing on paper of Andrew Jackson near the end of his life, 1840-45, 5 3/8” x 3 5/8”. With the name A. Jackson under the picture on the lower left, it also has initials “M.N”, and “B.D.” under the number “4555” on the right side. A few creases, which could be easily flattened. Possibly a life portrait. Purchased at Goodspeed’s Book Shop in Boston nearly fifty years ago by the previous owner.


Bruce Gimelson
PAINTINGS * AUTOGRAPHS * HISTORICAL OBJECTS
P.O. Box 440, Garrison, New York 10524-0440
(845) 424-4689 • Cell (914) 393-1462

www.brucegimelson.com