Pigeon

Art Historical Context

**Pigeon** by Karl Bodmer, aograph from around 1801–1825, captures the artist's meticulous eye for natural detail during his travels in early 19th-century North America.mer, a Swiss painter renowned for his expedition with Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied along the Missouri River in the 1830s, documented the continent's wildlife and landscapes with scientific precision. This print likely depicts a passenger pigeon or similar species, emblematic of the abundant fauna explorers encountered before widespread habitat loss. As a lithograph—a revolutionary printmaking technique invented in 1798—**...

About the Artist

Karl Bodmer · 1809–1893

Johann Carl Bodmer was born on February 11, 1809, in Zürich, Switzerland, and received his training as a painter and engraver under his uncle Johann Jakob Meier, who had himself studied under the prominent engraver Heinrich Füssli. By the late 1820s Bodmer had relocated to Koblenz, Germany, where his work came to the attention of Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied, a German naturalist-explorer plan...