Artist · 15 prints
Seth Eastman Prints
About Seth Eastman
Seth Eastman was an American soldier and painter, born in Brunswick, Maine, on January 24, 1808, and he died in Washington, D.C., in August 1875. He trained at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where topographical drawing (precise sketching of land for maps) was part of an officer's education. He graduated in 1829 and later returned to teach drawing there, publishing a Treatise on Topographical Drawing in 1837.
Eastman is best known for the years he spent at Fort Snelling, in present-day Minnesota, which he commanded several times between 1841 and 1848. There he painted and drew the Dakota and Ojibwe people living nearby, along with the river valleys around the fort, in works such as Mendota from Fort Snelling (1848). He then made hundreds of illustrations for Henry Rowe Schoolcraft's six-volume study of American Indian tribes, published from 1851 to 1857. Late in life Congress commissioned him to paint scenes of Native life and seventeen U.S. forts, some of which still hang in the U.S. Capitol.
Seth Eastman prints: reproductions of the paintings Seth Eastman made of the upper Mississippi River and the Dakota and Ojibwe communities around Fort Snelling in the 1840s and early 1850s. Works in the collection include Chippewa Encampment on the Upper Mississippi (1845), The Falls of St. Anthony (1848), Itasca Lake, Source of the Mississippi (1849), Gathering Wild Rice (1849) and Wenona's Leap, Lake Pepin (1851).
The selection has two strands. The river landscapes follow the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, from the lake at the river's source to bluffs, falls and roadside views in Wisconsin. The scenes of daily life show Dakota villages and encampments, wild rice gathering, fishing, muskrat spearing in winter, a dog dance and a burial ground. The views are calm, clear and carefully drawn.
The soft greens, blues and browns suit living rooms, studies, cabins and hallways, and the wider river views sit well above a sofa or desk. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
