Peter Rindisbacher c. 1834. Self Portrait

Peter Rindisbacher set himself up in a studio in St. Louis Missouri during the latter years of his life. It was there that he earned a reputation as a miniature portrait artist. Although the image to the left is in black and white, there is a colour reproduction of both this and portraits of his parents and some of his siblings in the book The Artist was a Young Man. They are rare examples of portraits of original Selkirk Settlers.

I’ll leave you this week with another scene of life at the Red River Colony by Peter Rindisbacher:

Winter Fishing on the Ice of the Assynoibain and Red River, 1821 (National Archives of Canada)

A few more Rindisbachers related to the RRS:

Métis Family ca. 1826 (Bata Shoe Museum P80.982)

Chippewa mode of traveling in spring and summer by Peter Rindisbacher c. 1825 (Virtual Museum of Canada; West Point Museum Art Collection)

Settlers at Red River, early 1820s. (Canadian Heritage Gallery) This drawing depicts a Swiss immigrant wife, husband and two children, a German, a Scots Highlander, and a French Canadian

Peter Rindisbacher was the first artist of European descent to portray the First Nations people of the Great Plains. He was meticulous in recording the detail of their garb and ornaments, and was recorded as painting very accurate likenesses, also.

The Artist was a Young Man shows some of his earliest portraits, those he executed of Inuit people encountered at various points along the Colonists’ northern sea route. Even as a teenager he was able to capture facial expressions and details in the unique clothing in the short time he was able to meet these people. Having attempted the same in art classes where the model was actually posing for a portrait, I can vouch for this being a tremendous skill (one I did not excel at, I might add)!

Rindisbacher’s scenes were portrayed by someone who had obviously been there and studied carefully the means, attitudes, apparel, and environment of the people he painted.

A Labrador Eskimo in a sealskin kayak, c. 1821 (Canadian Heritage Gallery)

Inside an Indian tent 1824 (National Archives of Canada)

Indian hunters pursuing buffalo in the early spring ca. 1822 (National Archives of Canada)

The young Swiss artist Peter Rindisbacher always practiced his skills using materials at hand. People who knew of his gift and were in a position to supply him with paint often did. He preferred watercolours, and he often sketched in ink his subject prior to completing a painting. Rindisbacher sometimes used these sketches or studies to create several paintings, which he would sell to HBC employees, military or government officials and publishers.

One of his gifts to researchers of the RRS is a series he made of his own voyage from York Factory to the Colony.

Extremely wearisome journeys at the portages 1821 (National Archives of Canada)

Arrival at Norway House on the great Lake Winnipeg 1821 (National Archives of Canada)

Cold night camp on the inhospitable shores of Lake Winnipeg 1821 (National Archives of Canada)

Subtitled The Life Story of Peter Rindisbacher, this book was written as a supplement to the 1970 art exhibition of the same name. As a consequence, it is not very long, but it is filled with information of an often overlooked group of original Selkirk Settlers, the Swiss of 1821.

Peter Rindisbacher was a teenager when he arrived at Red River with his family. He began studying art in Switzerland prior to the family’s emigration to the RRS, and showed a great deal of promise as an artist. It is, perhaps, unfortunate that there was no way of furthering his education in the North American West, but then again, Rindisbacher’s work might not have had the fresh, original style that it was praised for during his lifetime.

The Rindisbacher family left the RRS after the flood of 1826 to seek their fortune further south. Eventually, Peter would end up in St. Louis, where he died suddenly – no one seems to know how – at the age of 28.

His paintings were the first ever of the native peoples of the plains and of pioneer and fur trade life there. They have added significance on two points: he lived for years among the people and scenes that he painted, unlike travelling artists like Paul Kane, for example, so he really knew his subjects; and Rindisbacher was meticulous in accurately portraying the detail of those subjects.

Thanks to him, we have a visual record of life at Red River in the early days. In an earlier posting I used one of his images to illustrate a dog carriole. Some of his most famous scenes depict the buffalo hunt in both summer and winter. But there are others that illustrate life near and at the RRS, too.

Two of the Companies Officers Travelling in a Canoe Made of Birchbark Manned by Canadians (1818 - 1828) (National Gallery of Canada)

The Governor of Red River, Driving his Family on the River in a Horse Cariole (1824 ) (National Gallery of Canada)

For more on Peter Rindisbacher See Clifford Wilson’s article in Canadian Art #83, Jan./Feb. 1963.

The working dogs of Red River pulled another type of vehicle in the winter, too – the carriole. The carriole was a miniature version of the vehicle of the same name used with horses, and as such was more decorative in appearance than the usual toboggan-like dog sledge.

Gentleman Travelling in a Dog Carriole by Peter Rindisbacher 1825 - Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. R9266-1052.2 Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana

Oddly enough, the few mentions of the dog carriole in the journals indicate that they played a political role at the RRS. The principle settler, a gentleman named Alexander McLean, his wife and family, were being wooed by the NWCo. officials, who believed that if they could coerce the McLeans into abandoning the RRS, the rest of the settlers would surely follow. Mrs. McLean, Miles Macdonell observed, was sometimes taken out in Alexander Macdonell’s (of the NWCo.) dog carriole as part of this campaign.

In an effort “to detach them from the constant intercourse they have with the N. W. Fort,” Miles Macdonell began entertaining the McLeans in earnest, inviting them for meals, tea, entertainments and, yes, making sure that Mrs. McLean was taken out in a carriole by either himself or Archibald McDonald! His efforts were rewarded as the McLean family remained with the RRS until after the Massacre of Seven Oaks, in which Alexander McLean was killed. Mrs. McLean and five of her children returned to Scotland in 1817.

The dog carriole, like the dog sled, remained in use into Hargrave’s time. He mentions that:

Early in 1866 the Bishop of Rupert’s Land [the Right Rev. Dr. Robert Machray] set out on his first visitation. Travelling westwards his Lordship touched at Portage La Prairie, Westbourne, and Fairford, thence by the Pas he reached Cumberland and the Nepowewin, returning home by Touchwood Hills and Qu’Appelle Lake. The journey was performed in a dog carriole, and occupied seven weeks.

(reference: pages 16779, 16784, 16802, 16936, 18252, 18255 of the Selkirk Papers, M186, Manitoba Archives; Hudson’s Bay Company Archives C.1/785; Hargrave, p. 159)