Beschreibung:

Kit Carson, 1863. Pencil on paper, 368 x 286 mm, signed E.A. Burbank lower right, drawn after a well-known photograph of Kit Carson. Inscribed at upper left Kit Carson, 1863 and at lower left C. Carson, Late 1 Cavly NM Vols, Bvt Brig General (C. Carson, late 1st Cavalry New Mexico Volunteers, Brevet Brigadier General). With note in an unknown hand taped to the reverse of the mounting explaining the inscription. Framed and glazed. Christopher "Kit" Carson (1809-1868) was a frontiersman and Army officer who figured prominently in the expansion of the American West. Living as a trapper and mountain man, he became familiar with Native American culture and language, marrying an Arapaho and later a Cheyenne woman. He accompanied John Fremont on his expeditions to Utah and California, which led to involvement in the Mexican War. In 1863, while commanding the 1st New Mexico Cavalry, he waged a brutal war against the Navajo. He was romanticized in dime novels during his lifetime, but the controversy over his treatment of Native Americans has never abated. E.A. Burbank was known mainly for his portraits of Native Americans, including Geronimo, Red Cloud, and Chief Joseph. Born in Harvard, Illinois, he studied in Chicago and Munich. His uncle, who was President of the Field Museum, commissioned him to produce over 2,000 portraits of Native Americans. He was the only artist to paint a portrait of Geronimo from life. He later settled in San Francisco, where he died after being struck by a cable car at the age of 97.