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Title
Chief Keokuk, Sac & Fox
Creator
Burbank, E. A. (Elbridge Ayer), 1858-1949
Date
1900
Subjects
Indians of North America
,
Portraits, American
Summary
Collection of twenty-five oil paintings on canvas and panel executed by E. A. Burbank during the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. Predominately composed of intimately-scaled portraits of American Indian men and women, this collection offers invaluable insight into the pictorial depiction of the American Indian during the turn of the twentieth century as well as the cultural cache attached to the depiction of native subjects.
Biographical/Historical Note
American painter and illustrator. Elbridge Ayer Burbank was born in 1858 in Harvard, Illinois. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and in Germany, where he developed his technique in life drawing and portraiture. At first specializing in African American subjects, in 1897 Burbank was commissioned by his uncle Edward E. Ayer, to do a series of portraits of prominent Indian chiefs in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona. Accepting the commission, Burbank began his career as an Indian portrait authority. He painted Apache Chief Geronimo five times and was purported to be the only artist to paint the old warrior from life. This began his most productive and successful period as a painter of American Indians. By 1902, Burbank was roaming the west and southwest, seeking out the native peoples, painting and drawing. He depicted not only the great chiefs but also ordinary individuals, groups and ceremonies of more and 125 tribes. Burbank made friends wherever he traveled, among them was Juan Lorenzo Hubbell of the famed Hubbell Trading Post, a hub for artists, ethnologists and tourists. There he did red conté crayon drawings of Navajos and many of the patterns for their rugs. During the Depression, Burbank supported himself by drawing and selling scenes for postcards and greeting cards, pictures of famous Americans, and copies of his Indian studies. His reproductions were inexpensive, and were widely distributed and collected. His last years were spent at the Manx Hotel in San Francisco, where he died in 1949, after having been struck by a cable car.
Extent
13 x 9 inches (unframed), 14 x 10 inches (framed)
Format
Oil paintings
,
Paintings
,
Pictorial works
,
Portraits
Archival Collection Title
E. A. Burbank Indian Portraits, Paintings
,
Edward E. Ayer Collection
Rights Status
No Copyright - United States
Newberry Open Access Policy
The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to
these terms and conditions.
Contributing Institution
Newberry Library
Link to Catalog
View record
Call Number
VAULT oversize Ayer Art Burbank No. 64
BibID
955717
Size
3083px × 4279px 75.60 MB
IIIF Resource Type
Canvas
File Created
06/02/2022
Filename
999557178805867_ayer_art_burbank_paintings_064_01.tif
Unique Identifier
NL11XAOK
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