Bodies: 19th Century Perceptions of Native Americans in Painting and Sculpture

    With the west perceived as a vast, essentially unoccupied frontier, and a path to fulfillment of the American Dream, settlers pushed westward throughout the course of the 19th century. The draw of this land would only increase as gold was discovered in California in 1849 and as industry and technology (such as the railroad) made American expansion desirable and available to more. This drive forcefully removed Native Americans from their lands, eliminating or permanently altering traditional ways of life for thousands of aboriginal people.

    Contemporarily, there would have been two major justifications given for westward expansion and native displacement. 

1. Manifest destiny: the idea that God had spiritually ordained white men to control the continent, convert the Indians to Christianity, or both. 

2. Racial superiority: the idea that the white race is above others. This includes cultural and religious superiority. However, it was believed at the time that these character traits stem from a racial, biological propensity towards intellect and morality.  

    These ideas are not mutually exclusive in any means. In many cases, they are entwined, with either mode of thought justifying the other. They also share the same core thesis: the white colonization of native land is inevitable.

    This exhibit focuses on the ways artists in the 19th visually depicted these ideas, especially through native and female bodies. Specifically, how painting and sculpture were used to justify Westward expansion and ethnic genocide. Along with how these artists' belief in the inevitability of white colonization is reflected in their depictions of natives.

Erastus Dow Palmer
The White Captive
1858–59
Marble, 65 x 20 1/4 x 17 in.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States

Erastus Dow Palmer, born in 1817, was an American sculptor born in New York. He remained in the state, working out of Albany. His sculpture The White Captive depicts a Caucasian woman who had been abducted by Native Americans. From the nightgown hanging by her side, the viewer can tell she was taken in her sleep. To the contemporary audience, the race of The White Captive was distinctly American, visually distinct not only from depictions of Native Americans, but also from idealized Greek figures, which were popular figures in neoclassical sculpture. This piece specifically alludes to the contemporary fear of native violence and visually depicts Americans as morally pure compared to the imagined native savage.

John Mix Stanley
Osage Scalp Dance
1845
Oil on canvas 40 3⁄4 x 60 1⁄2 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, New York, United States

John Mix Stanley was an American artist and explorer. The scene in Osage Scalp Dance is fictional, playing off a current American story of natives kidnapping whites to kill, rape, or enslave them. However, Stanley claimed to have based his composition on his experiences traveling west. Stanley used value and space to emphasize his central figure, a white woman with her child. Viewers are clearly meant to sympathize with this figure, and visually it shows the cruelty of natives juxtaposed against the moral purity of the white women and child. In addition, a native figure defending the women wears a presidential peace medal. This shows how natives can gain moral purity through association with America and her institutions.

Erastus Dow Palmer 

Indian Girl, or The Dawn of Christianity

1855–56

Marble 60 x 19 3/4 x 22 1/4 in

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States

Erastus Dow Palmer’s sculpture Indian Girl, or The Dawn of Christianity, shows a young native girl holding a crucifix in front of her and a handful of feathers down to her side. She holds the cross in front of her, looking down on it. Palmer uses form and implied line to emphasize this object, suggesting its importance and diminishing the importance of the feathers, which help show the women as native. This sculpture shows the role of religious assimilation in the context of native colonization. It also alludes to the universal spiritual beauty and truth of Christianity and shows visually its prescience over native identity.

John Gadsby Chapman 

Baptism of Pocahontas

Oil on Canvas 12' x 18'

1840

Capitol Rotunda, Washington DC, United states

Born in the United States in 1813, John Gadsby Chapman began studying painting in the United States before moving to Italy to study with masters and then eventually moving back to New York. Commissioned by the U.S. government, this massive painting depicts Pocahontas and a minister baptizing her as its central figures. Among many other figures, her future husband, John Rolfe, stands behind her. Her brother looks the other way during the ceremony, and her sister sits on the floor with an infant. This painting shows the role of Christianity in native assimilation into the United States. While aware of the cultural conflict, Chapman frames Pocahontas’s bowing to America and her religion as the morally correct decision.

Albert Bierstadt 

The Landing of Columbus 

1893 

Oil on canvas 72 x 121 in.

Permanent Collection of The city of Plainfield, New Jersey, United states

Painted by the acclaimed landscape artist Albert Bierstadt late in his career, The Landing of Columbus mythologizes the initial moments of contact between Columbus and the native population. Bierstadt uses value to put emphasis on Columbus and his group of settlers as Columbus raises his hands towards the sky in celebration. Real and implied lines from the natives’ gaze, along with their pointed bodies, additionally focus the viewer on the settlers. Being painted in the late 19th century, after America had widely established dominance across the continent, this painting is in response to, in addition to being a justification of, the colonial project. This piece suggests that, from the first moment of contact, white, and in this case European, culture is inherently superior. This is so obvious that natives, who do not know and have not interacted with Columbus, are bowing down to him.

Hiram Powers 

California

1858 

marble, 71 x 18 1/4 x 24 3/4 in.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States

Hiram Powers, born in the United States in 1805, would move to and build his international reputation as a bust sculptor in Florence, Italy. California is an ideal, allegorical work depicting the process of mining, relating to both the potential riches and dangers of gold. While the figure was initially intended to be more explicitly native, Power's decision to portray her as entirely nude removed many racial signifiers. Through an understanding of phrenology (the practice of mapping a person's character to the shape of their face and head), Powers still intended this figure to be identified as native. By choosing to depict her race this way, Powers alludes to the idea that differences between natives and whites are due to distinct, physiological differences. By depicting her with a divining rod, Powers makes the native body a physical tool for finding gold, in addition to a symbolic tool to show his allegory.

Hiram Powers 

The Last of the Tribes 

1876-1877

marble 66 1⁄8 x 22 3⁄4 x 32 in

Smithsonian American Art Museum Washington DC, United States

Sculpted significantly after California, The Last of the Tribes builds upon themes found in Powers’ previous work. From a phrenological lens, her more rapidly receding forehead shows her as possessing lessened mental fortitude, an attribute understood to be associated with her race. She runs from civilization, looking back almost confused and scared, almost like an animal. By raising this fictitious native figure in marble sculpture, he gives her identity significance. Powers suggests that the perceived elimination of natives is significant, and should even inspire melancholy. However, Powers makes it clear that, due to racial inferiority, it is inevitable that they vanish in lieu of white settlers. It is inevitable that their numbers reduce until there is, eventually, a last of the tribes.

References: Baigell, Matthew. “Territory, Race, Religion: Images of Manifest Destiny.” Smithsonian Studies in American Art 4, no. 3/4 (1990): 3–21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3109013. Colbert, C. (1986). “Each Little Hillock hath a Tongue” - Phrenology and the Art of Hiram Powers. The Art Bulletin, 68(2), 281. https://doi.org/10.2307/3050938 Colbert, C. (2000). Spiritual currents and manifest destiny in the art of Hiram powers. The Art Bulletin, 82(3), 529. https://doi.org/10.2307/3051400