About the Artwork
Two American fur traders on horseback are about to enter an encampment of Kaw families in what is now northeastern Kansas. The tranquility of the scene suggests a peaceful and mutually productive trade relationship. But Albert Bierstadt, like most of his contemporaries, knew that as European American settlers pushed westward they forced Indigenous Americans to change their way of life — often through violence. Many, including the Kaw, were forcibly removed from their land.
The Wolf River, Kansas
ca. 1859
Albert Bierstadt
1830-1902
American
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Oil on canvas
Unframed: 48 1/4 × 38 1/4 inches (122.6 × 97.2 cm) Framed: 61 5/16 × 51 1/2 × 5 1/8 inches (155.7 × 130.8 × 13 cm)
Paintings
American Art before 1950
Founders Society Purchase, Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. Fund
61.28
Copyright Not Evaluated
Markings
Signed, lower right: A. Bierstadt
Provenance
Vose Galleries (Boston, Massachusetts, USA).Kennedy Galleries (New York, New York, USA).
1961-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
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Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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The Kennedy Quarterly 1, 2 (April 1960): pp. 30-31 (fig. 33).
Bulletin of the DIA 40, 3-4 (1960-1961): pp. 52-53 (ill.).
Kansiensiana. Exh. cat., University of Kansas Museum of Art. Lawrence, KS, 1961, no. 17.
Hendricks, Gordon. “The First Three Western Journeys of Albert Beirstadt.” The Art Bulletin 46, 3 (September 1964): pp. 333-365 (fig. 7).
Lindquist-Cock, Elizabeth. “Stereoscopic Photography and the Western Painting of Albert Bierstadt.” Art Quarterly 33, 4 (1970): pp. 360-378 (ill.).
Hendricks, G. A. Bierstadt. Exh. cat., Amon Carter Museum. Fort Worth, 1972, p. 13, no. 17 (ill.).
_____________. Albert Bierstadt: Painter of the American West. New York, 1973, p. 82 (fig. 63).
Rivard, N.J. “American Paintings at the Detroit Institute of Arts.” Antiques 114 (November 1978): pp. 1044-1055 (pl. 6).
“Family Art Game.” DIA Advertising Supplement. Detroit Free Press (May 20, 1979): p. 14 (ill.).
“Family Art Game.” DIA Advertising Supplement. Detroit News (April 29, 1984): p. 5 (ill.).
Nottage, James H. Prairie Visions: Art of the American West. Exh. cat., Kansas Museum of History. Topeka, 1985, p. 10.
Stein, R.B. “Packaging the Great Plains: The Role of the Visual Arts.” Great Plains Quarterly 5, 1 (1985): pp. 5-23 (fig. 3).
Ferber, Linda and Nancy Anderson. Albert Bierstadt: Art and Enterprise. New York, 1990, p. 153, no. 16 (ill.).
Albert Bierstadt: Art and Enterprise. Exh. cat., The Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn, 1991, p. 153, no. 16.
Hassrick, Peter H. "Art, Agency, and Conservation." Montana: The Magazine of Western History 68, no. 1 (Spring 2018): pp. 8-9 (fig. 6).
Hassrick, Peter H. Albert Bierstadt: Witness to a Changing West. Exh. cat., Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Cody, 2018, pp. 88, 90 (fig 2.60).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Albert Bierstadt, The Wolf River, Kansas, ca. 1859, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. Fund, 61.28.
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