by Elizabeth Campbell

I was alerted to a new-to-me website this morning – one that mentions the Red River Colony. So, naturally, I went in to have a look!

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)

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 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.

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.