Lot 331
Edward Curtis "The Mussel Gatherer" Photogravure 1900
Edward Curtis "The Mussel Gatherer" Photogravure 1900
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Edward Sheriff Curtis (American, 1868-1952)., ca. 1900 - 1930 CE. The Mussel Gathererphotogravure. 1900, printed ca. 1900-1930. Inscribed in plate, upper left: Plate 313. Titled in plate, lower left: THE MUSSEL GATHERER; Inscribed in plate, lower center: From Copyright Photograph 1900 by E.S. Curtis; Inscribed in plate, lower right: Photogravure John Andrew & Son. "The Mussel Gatherer" is a hand-pulled photogravure that was part of Edward Curtis' epic 20 volume project to document Native Americans threatened by Westward expansion in the United States entitled "The North American Indian" (1907-1930) - an ambitious endeavor funded by John Pierpont Morgan that experts have estimated would cost more than $35 million to create today. In this piece, Curtis photographed a Native American woman foraging mussels along a rocky shoreline, rendered in classic sepia tone. Size (image): 11.875" L x 15.375" W (30.2 cm x 39.1 cm) Size (sheet): 17.75" L x 21.875" W (45.1 cm x 55.6 cm) Size (frame): 23.875" L x 27.75" W (60.6 cm x 70.5 cm)
To learn more about Curtis' impressive undertaking, please read Gilbert King's article in Smithsonian Magazine. It opens as follows, with King brilliantly capturing Curtis' urgency and steadfast work ethic to document the indigenous peoples before expansion would potentially eclipse their cultures, "Year after year, he packed his camera and supplies - everything he'd need for months - and traveled by foot and by horse deep into the Indian territories. At the beginning of the 20th century, Edward S. Curtis worked in the belief that he was in a desperate race against time to document, with film, sound and scholarship, the North American Indian before white expansion and the federal government destroyed what remained of their natives' way of life. For thirty years, with the backing of men like J. Pierpont Morgan and former president Theodore Roosevelt, but at great expense to his family life and his health, Curtis lived among dozens of native tribes, devoting his life to his calling until he produced a definitive and unparalleled work, The North American Indian. The New York Herald hailed as 'the most ambitious enterprise in publishing since the production of the King James Bible.'" ("Edward Curtis' Epic Project to Photograph Native Americans" by Gilbert King - Smithsonian Magazine March 21, 2012)
While Curtis has had his critics who have claimed that he romanticized Native Americans, others have argued that he was ahead of his time and depicted them with dignity and respect. In her book entitled, "Shadow Catcher: The Life and Work of Edward S. Curtis" (Bison Books, 2005) Laurie Lawlor wrote, "When judged by the standards of his time, Curtis was far ahead of his contemporaries in sensitivity, tolerance and openness to Native American cultures and ways of thinking. He sought to observe and understand by going directly into the field."
Still, it is important to discuss Curtis' anachronistic viewpoint and process, aptly summarized on the State Historical Society of Missouri website, "Edward Curtis' aestheticized approach to photographing Indigenous people often promotes a romanticized Euro-American centric understanding of the individuals pictured. Particularly problematic is the implication that appears throughout 'The North American Indian' that the Indigenous people represented are members of a 'dying' race. This perspective is reflected in Curtis' 1907 introduction to the first volume in which he writes, 'The information that is to be gathered respecting the mode of life of one of the great races of mankind, must be collected at once or the opportunity will be lost.'
Today this viewpoint is considered anachronistic and particularly offensive to many Indigenous people who consider their 'race' and culture to be very much alive. Unfortunately, Curtis' attitude was the prevailing view of most Euro American ethnologists, historians, and scholars of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At that point in history, most white Americans shared an Imperialist, Eurocentric world view, believing that the ancestral cultures of the world's Indigenous people were 'primitive,' and that they would inevitably 'progress' or 'evolve' into cultures resembling those of the supposedly more advanced nations of industrialized Europe and the United States. As aesthetic products of this era rather than objective reportage, Curtis' photographs reflect a multitude of biases inherent in the complex intellectual and cultural history of the United States." (source: The State Historical Society of Missouri website)
Provenance: private Boulder, Colorado, USA Collection
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Item #
201715
- Condition: Artwork is mounted in a custom frame under plexiglass. While not examined outside the frame, this piece appears to be in excellent antique condition. Frame and plexiglass have a few slight scuffs; otherwise it is excellent and fit with suspension wire.
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