Newberry Library - Chief Red-Cloud, Sioux

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Open book Chief Red-Cloud, Sioux

Title Chief Red-Cloud, Sioux

Creator Burbank, E. A. (Elbridge Ayer), 1858-1949

Date 1899

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 13-1/8 x 9-1/8 inches (unframed)

Format Oil paintings, Paintings, Portraits

Archival Collection Title E. A. Burbank Indian Portraits, Paintings, Edward E. Ayer Collection

Link to Catalog View record

Call Number VAULT oversize Ayer Art Burbank No. 66

BibID 955717

Rights Status No Copyright - United States

Contributing Institution Newberry Library

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.

IIIF Resource Type Canvas

Size 4192px × 5757px 138.35 MB

File Created 06/02/2022

Filename 999557178805867_ayer_art_burbank_paintings_066_01.tif

Unique Identifier NL11XAOV

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