October 27, 2025

This Week in the West: The Prince and the Painter - the story of Karl Bodmer

5 minutes

🤠This Week in the West

🎙️ Episode 52: The Prince and the Painter - the story of Karl Bodmer

📢 Episode Summary:

Karl Bodmer may have been born along the Rhine River, but his greatest artistic legacy came from his journey up the Missouri. This episode of This Week in the West follows the young Swiss artist who, at just 23 years old, joined Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied on an ambitious scientific expedition through the American frontier in the 1830s. Their goal was to record the landscapes, wildlife, and Indigenous peoples of North America with accuracy and respect—and Bodmer’s brush brought those goals to life.

As they traveled thousands of miles by steamboat, keelboat, and on foot, Bodmer captured the world of the upper Missouri in stunning detail. His portraits of the Omaha, Mandan, Minatarre, Sioux, and Assiniboine peoples are celebrated for their humanity and precision, offering an irreplaceable visual record of cultures that were soon devastated by disease and displacement. Despite hardships that included freezing paints and dangerous travels, Bodmer produced hundreds of sketches and watercolors that became the foundation for Travels in the Interior of North America, published in the 1840s.

After returning to Europe, Bodmer continued to paint and eventually inspired artists like Claude Monet. Though he died in relative obscurity in 1893, his legacy endures in his 81 aquatints—works that remain among the most important artistic and ethnographic documents of the American West. Through his eye and hand, the frontier lives on in color, compassion, and truth.

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

How Karl Bodmer’s expedition with Prince Maximilian documented Native peoples and landscapes of the early 19th-century American frontier

Why Bodmer’s detailed aquatints remain vital both as art and as ethnographic history

How his influence extended beyond the West, inspiring future artists such as Claude Monet

👥 Behind the Scenes

Host: Seth Spillman

Producer: Chase Spivey

Writer: Mike Koehler

🔗 Further research:

Videos and images about Bodmer from the Metropolitan Museum of Art https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2021/karl-bodmer-north-american-portraits

The National Mississippi River Museum Hall of Fame: Karl Bodmer: https://www.rivermuseum.org/inductees/artists-writers-and-musicians/karl-bodmer

From Swann Auction Galleries, an overview of Bodmer’s work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oNwMc4APIM

📬 Connect With Us:

🌐 Website: www.thecowboy.org

📖 Read Our Blog: https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/blog/

📩 Email: [email protected]

📲Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/ncwhm/

📷Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationalcowboymuseum

❎X/Twitter: https://x.com/ncwhm

💼LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-cowboy-&-western-heritage-museum

🗺️ Visit Us: The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd Street, Oklahoma City, OK, 73111. See us on the map

🎟️You can now buy tickets online at www.thecowboy.org/tickets

💡 Support Us:🏅Become A Member of the Museum: https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/support/memberships/

🛒Shop at Persimmon Hill, our Museum store: https://persimmonhillstore.com/

🎧 Listen & Subscribe:

🔹 Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-the-west/id1776228708

🔹 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2KYmd2BumVtQVH1ez1Cr2U

🔹YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFoE2kU21JpX9T6W9NonXuD9UapS1TsmN

🔹Podbean: https://thisweekinthewest.podbean.com/

⭐ If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to rate & review!

...more

View all episodes

By The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

4.7

1818 ratings