Bodmer_Publication

Bodmer – Wied – America: A Journey of Exploration
Hartwig Isernhagen
It was a fortunate moment in history when the natural scientist Wied, whose
major work is the Reise in das innere Nord-America in den Jahren 1832 bis 1834,
met the artist Karl Bodmer. It was fortunate for Maximilian Alexander Philipp,
Prince of Wied-Neuwied, a younger son from the Rhenish dynasty, that in Bodmer
he found an artist whose brilliant illustrations were able to enhance his some what
dry and sober text; and fortunate for Karl Bodmer, the young Swiss painter, because
in everything he saw in America, and in everything he had to render in his
work, he found subject matter that demanded his greatest skills.
That Wied was to become one of the major figures in the history of North American
ethnology was in no way foreseeable when he was born on 23 September 1782.
The standard education of his class at first quite naturally led him into the military
service of Prussia, the “Big Brother” next door, in 1802. In the ongoing conflict
with post-Revolutionary France he was taken prisoner in 1806, but exchanged
quickly again, and in 1811 he went on to study natural history (in the broad and
holistic, i.e., interdisciplinary, sense of the term) with Johann Friedrich Blumenbach
in Göttingen.
One of Blumenbach’s earlier students had been Alexander von Humboldt,
who had undertaken an expedition to South America, with a detour into North
America, from 1799 to 1804. The expedition caused excitement in professional
circles, and Humboldt became a role model to many natural scientists. Wied,
who was back in active service during the wars of German liberation (1812 – 1815),
visited Paris in 1814 where, among others, he met Humboldt. In how far and in what
way this encounter influenced the planning and execution of Wied’s own jour ney
to Brazil in 1815/17 cannot be reconstructed – at least not yet, because a lot of the
relevant material still has to be processed. But that Wied, quite generally, has to
be seen in association with Humboldt seems obvious.
When he published his first travel book, Reise nach Brasilien in den Jahren 1815
bis 1817, 1 in 1820/21, Maximilian realized with great regret that the illustrations that
had been prepared by European artists after his sketches were not up to the standard
he expected. The reason for this lay in the fact that, not being a skilled draftsman
himself, his sketches had been reworked by two of his siblings, and, in addition,
because the artists had to deal with persons and objects, the like of which
they had never seen before:”... indeed, the etcher has fantasized a tail for the little
Aguti in the man’s hand,” Wied noted later. 2 The authenticity of the illustrations
thus inevitably suffered. Authenticity, however, was of paramount importance, for
it was already on his trip to Brazil that Wied had encountered a major dilemma:
the progress that made his science possible in the first place and which was, in
turn, fostered by it, was actually threatening the civilizations he was trying to
understand. Precise documentation of everything he saw was therefore essential,
particularly since he was looking for the “most original” civilizations. Precisely
the essence that distinguished these cultures had, in his own assessment, often
been lost in the transition from his sketches to the finished illustrations. When
preparing his next expedition, he therefore went in search of an artist who was
willing to accompany him and produce the required sketches in the field.
18