Bodmer_Publication

In the effort to represent completely new subjects, European conventions of
landscape painting often prove inadequate. It is already on the Ohio River and its
tributaries that we find Bodmer exoticizing landscapes. The Missouri is no longer
a simple, navigable waterway; it becomes a dangerous labyrinth. Even the “didactic”
illustrations of geological formations are changed in subtle ways. Sometimes,
the artist is able to tame the object according to the rules of the classical (or classicist-romantic)
view, and the image becomes a single pastoral whole of subject and
atmosphere. This occurs particularly where Indian settlements and lodgings are
embedded in the landscape, or where traces of Indian life in the landscape, such
as Washinga Saba’s grave, are only visible to the initiate. But the further Wied
and Bodmer travel West, the more the grandiose emptiness of the landscape
rebels against such tame forms of representation. This results in interesting
tensions in, and between, Bodmer’s images. The elevating grandness of the landscape
becomes more and more prominent, often supported by Bodmer’s intense
use of brilliant light that reminds one of painters like Turner. The landscape’s
splendor and beauty become overpowering in ways that the eighteenth century
had already called sublime.
The journey provides the subject matters, it provides the first steps toward
their representation, and thereby it also engenders problems of representation,
with which Bodmer has to deal after his return, in his studio and in collabora -
tion with the etchers. Wied is busy with his collection, most of which ultimately
finds a home in Berlin and Stuttgart. 5 He works on his travel book, going by the
entries in his diary. The two volumes are published in 1839 and 1841, and dedicated
to his “most dear nephew, the Ruling Prince Hermann of Wied.” Abridged French
and English translations follow. Prince Maximilian not only closely monitors the
publication of the book itself, he also watches over the complicated and costly
production of the two series of illustrations, which takes much longer. Bodmer is
in charge of every step in the production process: from making the field sketches,
some of which already show a considerable degree of elaboration, to preparing the
artwork for etching, supervising the numerous etchers, down to the actual printing
and the marketing of the prints. Three publishers are involved in the project,
and a close quality control is therefore all the more essential. This step lies completely
in Bodmer’s hands; he normally (but not without exception) marks good
prints with his blind stamp. At first he uses “CH BODMER,” for “Charles Bodmer,”
an appellation he frequently uses during this period; later, and for the vast majority
of prints, he uses “C BODMER.”
The prints were published serially. There are two formats: the tableaux, which
form a separate publication, the aquatint atlas, and the vignettes, which were
usually included in the text volumes at the head of single chapters. Among the
various versions, the distinction between hand-colored and black-and-white
prints is probably most important to the modern audience. Although the former
were much more expensive, this difference is not simply one in quality. As we know,
black-and-white photography often follows other aims and achieves different
effects to color photography. The same can be said of Bodmer’s illustrations.
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