Unidentified Woman

Description

On April 4, 1834, Bodmer made a drawing of the Arikara wife of the smith at Fort Clark. This could be that woman, but the only identifying information associated with the sketch is a penciled notation in German on the reverse: "Mandan Woman." Another note in similar handwriting refers to Bodmer as "honore chevalier." Both inscriptions were thus presumably made after 1876, when Bodmer became a Knight of the Legion of Honor, long after Maximilian's death. The painted robe is a common Plains style. In Plate 192, a Teton Sioux woman is depicted wearing a similar robe.