The Morning: Stags and Does
1858
Medium
Tint lithograph on white wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 29 × 46.1 cm (11 7/16 × 18 3/16 in.); Sheet: 45 × 63 cm (17 3/4 × 24 13/16 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
129374
Art Historical Context
Karl Bodmer’s *The Morning: Stags and Does* captures a tranquil woodland scene at dawn, where a small herd of deer pauses in soft morning light. Created in 1858, the lithograph reflects Bodmer’s lifelong fascination with the natural world, honed during his earlier travels across North America in the 1830s, when he documented landscapes and wildlife with meticulous observation. By the late 1850s, working from his studio in France, he turned this precision toward European subjects, translating the quiet drama of nature into print form. The work is a tint lithograph, a medium that allowed artist...
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...