Skip to main content

Seth Eastman Art

American, 1808-1875

Seth Eastman is known primarily for his depictions of daily life among the Dakota and Ojibwe tribes in Minnesota. He was born to Robert and Sarah Lee Eastman on January 24, 1808, in Brunswick, Maine. Eastman attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he received training in sketching and topography. While at West Point, he began to paint scenes featuring the daily life of local Native American tribes. In 1830, Eastman was assigned to topography duty on the frontier and spent a short time at Fort Snelling before returning to West Point to teach. While at Fort Snelling, Eastman married Wakaninajinwin, the fifteen-year-old daughter of Cloud Man, a Dakota chief. Eastman left in 1832 for another military assignment soon after the birth of their baby girl, Winona and declared his marriage ended when he left. Winona was also known as Mary Nancy Eastman and was the mother of Charles Alexander Eastman, author of Indian Boyhood. From 1833–40, Eastman taught drawing at West Point. In 1835 he married his second wife, Mary Henderson, the daughter of a West Point surgeon. In 1841, he returned to Fort Snelling as a military commander and remained there with Mary and their five children for the next seven years. It was during this time that Eastman began visually recording the everyday way of life of the Dakota and Ojibwe people. His wife Mary also became involved in preserving Indian culture by writing books on local tales and legends, which he would illustrate for her. The most important of these books was entitled Dahcotah: Or, Life and Legends of the Sioux Around Fort Snelling. In 1847, Henry R. Schoolcraft, a former Indian agent, was chosen to conduct a study of the American Indian people. Eastman illustrated the six-volume set, published between 1851 and 1857 as Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States. The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Military Affairs also commissioned Eastman to paint images of 17 important military forts, which he completed between 1870–75. These paintings are now housed in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Eastman's works are significant for Minnesota history because art historians believe that Eastman based many of his paintings and sketches on his observations in the Sioux villages of Kaposia and Little Crow, as well as in Scott, Wabasha and Winona counties. Eastman died of a stroke while painting at his home in Washington, D.C., on August 31, 1875.

to
5
5
4
3
1
Road-Side View (View in Wisconsin)
Road-Side View (View in Wisconsin)

Road-Side View (View in Wisconsin)

By Seth Eastman

Located in New York, NY

Label on stretcher bar: No. 175. / AMERICAN ART-UNION. /Road-Side View / Painted by / Seth Eastman / Distributed December 20, 1850.

Category

19th Century Hudson River School Seth Eastman Art

Materials

Oil

Related Items
Fest
Fest

Robert RauschenbergFest, 1991

$6,500

H 26 in W 19 in

Fest

By Robert Rauschenberg

Located in Indianapolis, IN

Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) Fest (1991) Four color lithograph Size: 26 x 21 in (66 x 53.3 cm) Frame size: 33.5 x 28.25 (85 x 71.7 cm) Edition of 51, this is 38/51 Hand signed an...

Category

1990s Abstract Expressionist Seth Eastman Art

Materials

Lithograph

19th Century White Mountain Landscape, Unknown American School
19th Century White Mountain Landscape, Unknown American School

19th Century White Mountain Landscape, Unknown American School

Located in New York, NY

Unknown White Mountain Artist White Mountain Landscape, 19th Century Oil on board 5 x 9 1/4 in. Framed: 7 3/4 x 11 3/4 in.

Category

19th Century Hudson River School Seth Eastman Art

Materials

Oil, Board

Le Soir: Cerf et Herons (The Evening: Stag and Herons)
Le Soir: Cerf et Herons (The Evening: Stag and Herons)

Le Soir: Cerf et Herons (The Evening: Stag and Herons)

By Karl Bodmer

Located in Fairlawn, OH

Le Soir: Cerf et Herons (The Evening: Stag and Herons) Lithograph printed with brown tint stone, 1858 From: Animaux et Paysages d’apres Nature Published by Goupil, 1858 Signed in the stone lower left, Karl Bodmer Pinx. et lith. (see photo) Published by Goupil et Cie, Paris, with their blindstamp center, below image Printed by Bertauts, Paris (see photo) Condition: Excellent One stain verso, not visible on recto Full sheet Image size: 11 1/4 x 18 inches Sheet size: 17 3/4 x 24 3/4 inches Reference: Delteil 70 IFF 22, No. 1 Karl Bodmer (1809—1893) Painter, draftsman, and printmaker. Although he spent only two years in the United States and its territories, Bodmer's depictions of Western Indians...

Category

1850s Barbizon School Seth Eastman Art

Materials

Lithograph

"Grand Manan" Harrison Bird Brown, Maine Landscape, Hudson River School Seascape
"Grand Manan" Harrison Bird Brown, Maine Landscape, Hudson River School Seascape

"Grand Manan" Harrison Bird Brown, Maine Landscape, Hudson River School Seascape

By Harrison Bird Brown

Located in New York, NY

Harrison Bird Brown (1831 - 1915) Grand Manan Oil on canvas 12 x 20 inches Signed with initials lower left Harrison Bird Brown was born in 1831 in Portland, Maine, and is best known for his White Mountain landscapes and marine paintings of Maine's Casco Bay...

Category

Late 19th Century Hudson River School Seth Eastman Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Luminous Hudson River School Landscape Cows Grazing Wide Gold Frame Oil Painting
Luminous Hudson River School Landscape Cows Grazing Wide Gold Frame Oil Painting

Luminous Hudson River School Landscape Cows Grazing Wide Gold Frame Oil Painting

Located in Buffalo, NY

A finely rendered 19th century Hudson River School landscape depicting cattle grazing within an expansive open field, set beneath a softly illuminated sky. The composition is anchore...

Category

1860s Hudson River School Seth Eastman Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Dusk Forest Scene, Catskills by Lockwood DeForest (American, 1850-1932)
Dusk Forest Scene, Catskills by Lockwood DeForest (American, 1850-1932)

Dusk Forest Scene, Catskills by Lockwood DeForest (American, 1850-1932)

By Lockwood DeForest

Located in New York, NY

"Dusk Forest Scene, Catskills," 1875 by Hudson River School painter Lockwood DeForest (American, 1850-1932) is oil on artists card-stock and measures 9.5 x 7 inches. The work is signed by DeForest, and dated May 13, 1875 at lower right. The work is framed in an elegant, period appropriate frame, and ready to hang. Lockwood DeForest was born in New York in 1850 to a prominent family. He grew up in Greenwich Village and on Long Island at the family summer estate in Cold Spring Harbor. As was customary for a cultivated family in the Gilded Age, the DeForests made frequent trips abroad. Excursions to the great museums, which were prominent on the DeForests agenda, deepened the young Lockwood's familiarity with European painting and sculpture. Though he had begun drawing and painting somewhat earlier, it was during a visit to Rome in 1868 that nineteen-year-old DeForest first began to study art seriously, taking painting lessons from the Italian landscapist Hermann David Salomon Corrodi (1844–1905). More importantly, on the same trip, Lockwood met one of America’s most celebrated painters, (and his maternal great- uncle by marriage) Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), who quickly became his mentor. DeForest accompanied Church on sketching trips around Italy and continued this practice when they both returned to America in 1869. Early on in his career, de Forest made a habit of recording the date and often the place of his oil sketches, as to create a visual diary of his travels. Lockwood’s profession as a landscape painter can be primarily attributed to Frederic E. Church and his belief in the young artist’s talent. DeForest often visited Church in the Hudson River community of Catskill where, in addition to sketching trips and afternoons of painting, he assisted with the architectural drawings and planning of Olana. In 1872, DeForest took a studio at the Tenth Street Studio Building in New York. During these formative years DeForest counted among his friend’s artists such as Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823–80), George Henry Yewell (1830–1923), John Frederick Kensett (1816–72), Jervis McEntee (1828–91), and Walter Launt Palmer (1854–1932). Over the next decade DeForest experienced success as a painter. He exhibited for the first time at the National Academy of Design in 1872, and made two more painting trips abroad, in 1875–76 and 1877–78, traveling to the major continental capitals but also the Middle East and North Africa. His trip to the Middle East and the library at Church’s home, Olana, established his interest in design during his mid-twenties. From about 1878 to 1902, landscape painting was overshadowed by his activities and preoccupation with East Indian architecture and décor, a style that became quite fashionable in late nineteenth century America. From 1879-1883, de Forest founded Associated Artists along with Louis Comfort Tiffany, Candace Wheeler...

Category

19th Century Hudson River School Seth Eastman Art

Materials

Oil, Board

“Quebec City, 1853” Panoramic Landscape View, Cityscape, Canada Signed Oil
“Quebec City, 1853” Panoramic Landscape View, Cityscape, Canada Signed Oil

“Quebec City, 1853” Panoramic Landscape View, Cityscape, Canada Signed Oil

By Edmund C. Coates

Located in Yardley, PA

“Quebec City, 1853” by Edmund C. Coates (American, 1816-1871). A luminous 19th-century view of Quebec City by the American painter Edmund C. Coates, known for his detailed Hudson Ri...

Category

1850s Hudson River School Seth Eastman Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Antique American Pastoral Hudson River Painting Farm Oxen 1890 19th Century Rare

Antique American Pastoral Hudson River Painting Farm Oxen 1890 19th Century Rare

Located in Buffalo, NY

A 19th century American landscape depicting a pastoral valley framed by autumnal trees, with distant mountains rising softly along the horizon. A river winds through the foreground, ...

Category

Early 1900s Hudson River School Seth Eastman Art

Materials

Oil, Board

Gone Fishing
Gone Fishing

Gone Fishing, c. 1870

$750

H 9.25 in W 12.25 in D 2 in

Gone Fishing

Located in North Clarendon, VT

Wonderful Hudson River School oil on board of a fisherman in a peaceful River scene. Monogram and dated on reverse. 9.25" x 12.25" housed in a carved frame measuring 11.5" x 14.5".

Category

1870s Hudson River School Seth Eastman Art

Materials

Oil

Dusk in August
Dusk in August

Louise NevelsonDusk in August, 1967

$1,500

H 17 in W 22.25 in

Dusk in August

By Louise Nevelson

Located in Indianapolis, IN

Louise Nevelson (1899-1988) Dusk in August (1967) Lithograph with embossing Size: 17 x 22.25 in (43 x 56.4 cm) Frame size: 21.75 x 26.75 in (55.25 x 67.95 cm) Edition of 100, this i...

Category

20th Century Abstract Expressionist Seth Eastman Art

Materials

Lithograph

"Cows in a Stream" Arthur Parton, Hudson River School, Tonalist, Skyscape
"Cows in a Stream" Arthur Parton, Hudson River School, Tonalist, Skyscape

"Cows in a Stream" Arthur Parton, Hudson River School, Tonalist, Skyscape

By Arthur Parton

Located in New York, NY

Arthur Parton Cows in a Stream, 1880 Signed and dated lower left Oil on canvas 20 x 16 inches Along with his younger brother Ernest Parton, Arthur Parton was a prominent figure wit...

Category

1880s Hudson River School Seth Eastman Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Moonrise in the Mountains (Hudson River School Style Nighttime Landscape)
Moonrise in the Mountains (Hudson River School Style Nighttime Landscape)

Moonrise in the Mountains (Hudson River School Style Nighttime Landscape)

By Jane Bloodgood-Abrams

Located in Hudson, NY

Luminist, Hudson River School inspired landscape of Catskill mountains with moonlit blue sky "Moonrise in the Mountains", painted by Hudson Valley artist, Jane Bloodgood-Abrams in 20...

Category

2010s Hudson River School Seth Eastman Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Previously Available Items
Synopsis of Indian Hieroglyphics Pl. 59
Synopsis of Indian Hieroglyphics Pl. 59

Synopsis of Indian Hieroglyphics Pl. 59

By Seth Eastman

Located in Milwaukee, WI

"Synopsis of Indian Hieroglyphics Pl. 59" is an original color lithograph by Seth Eastman. This piece depicts 70 small images depicting Native American symbols. 8" x 5 1/4" art 18 ...

Category

1850s Seth Eastman Art

Materials

Lithograph

Seth Eastman art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Seth Eastman art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Seth Eastman in lithograph, engraving, oil paint and more. Not every interior allows for large Seth Eastman art, so small editions measuring 16 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of and Thomas Moran. Seth Eastman art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $475 and tops out at $65,000, while the average work can sell for $475.