Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952), the most famous photographer of the American Indian, is known for his compelling and romantic portraits. The Wisconsin-born, Seattle-based photographer began his depiction of Indian life around 1896, with images of the local Salish. In 1900, he set out to systematically document what he believed to be the vanishing culture of the American Indian. He drew from over 40,000 negatives to compile the massive The North American Indian, partly funded by financier J. Pierpont Morgan and published in twenty volumes with accompanying oversize folios (1907-1930). The immense task resulted in the break-up of his marriage and a physical and mental collapse. By the time of his death his work was almost completely forgotten. After the original printing plates were rediscovered in 1972, he returned to popular acclaim.
Curtis's photography embodies a mixture of artistic and scientific impulses. Despite his goal of accurate representation, he employed the contemporary artistic style of "pictorialism," with its softly-focused romanticism. And because he sought to represent the past of the Indian, Curtis often resorted to recreation with props and staging.
Because he was a commercial photographer, Curtis images exist in many formats, from original prints to published photo-engravings. The Hearst Museum owns about a hundred Curtis prints, donated by several individuals, including the photographer himself. Except for the smaller picture of the Tsawatenok girl (donated by Dorothy Weicker in 1992), all these were collected by Dorothy Dean Scott in the late 1920s and donated to the museum in 1966.
|
|
