Seminole Child with Bittern

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Photo by John Bentham.
Seminole Child with Bittern
Photo by John Bentham.
Artist/Maker (American, 1824 - 1900)
Date1878
MediumOil on canvas, mounted on masonite
DimensionsCanvas: 20 × 17 1/2 in. (50.8 × 44.5 cm) Frame: 25 1/4 × 23 1/4 × 1 3/8 in. (64.1 × 59.1 × 3.5 cm)
Credit LineThe Beinecke Lesser Antilles Collection of Hamilton College
Object number1971.1
On view
DescriptionBest known for his satirical paintings of anthropomorphic, or human-like, animals, Seminole Child with Bittern is an unusual artwork for William H. Beard not only because it lacks a satirical subject, but because it centers on an Indigenous child. Beard occasionally painted images of children and people hunting in the 1850s and 60s, but it was only in the late 1870s that Indigenous subjects appeared. In 1981, the art historian William H. Gerdts noted that “Beard painted the American Indian ... sometimes as idyllic figures, sometimes with more poignant meaning,” around 1876. The most well-known of these artworks was titled Lo, The Poor Indian, and depicted an Indigenous man with his faithful dog in a windswept landscape, “sunk in despair and staring off into the unknown.” Gerdts described the painting as “Beard’s contribution to the vast pictorial and literary recognition of the passing away of the aborigine.” Seminole Child with Bittern may have been intended as an elegiac work that links the Indigenous child to nature. However, the youngster seems oddly disconnected from the dynamic fledgling that they hold wrapped in a cloth, while the other two bitterns seem more defined characters than the child, who appears to be less of an individualized person than a generalized ‘Seminole type.’
Collections

Additional Details

Exhibition History 2024-2025
Clinton, NY. The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College. "Menagerie: Animals in Art from the Wellin Museum," September 7, 2024 –June 8, 2025 (no cat.).

2007
Clinton, NY (Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College). "Highlights from the Permanent Collection," February 19 - April 15, 2007 (no catalog);

1992
Clinton, NY (Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College). "Highlights from the Hamilton College Collection," June 5 - September 6, 1992 (cat. no. 122);

1984
Clinton, NY (Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College). "Beinecke Collection," July 10 - September 5, 1984;

1965
Tucson, AZ (The University of Arizona Art Gallery). "The Bird in Art," November 7, 1964 - January 3, 1965 (cat. no. 54, illus.).
Provenance c. 1971: (Hamilton College), by gift of Walter Beinecke, Jr.;
after 1964 - c. 1971: Walter Beinecke, Jr.;
by 1964: Kennedy Galleries, New York.
Published References Hough, Samuel J. and Penelope R.O. Hough, THE BEINECKE LESSER ANTILLES COLLECTION AT HAMILTON COLLEGE: A CATOLOGUE OF BOOKS, MANUSCRIPTS, PRINTS, MAPS, AND DRAWINGS (Trustees of Hamilton College, Clinton, NY, 1994), 340, catalogue no. P62.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE HAMILTON COLLEGE COLLECTION (exh. cat. Clinton, Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, June 5- September 6, 1992, page 15, cat. 122).


Signature Signed "W H Beard / 1878" at lower left composition in red paint.
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