William Berczy's Portraits of Joseph Brant
| Français | Introduction
by Gloria Lesser
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1 Refer to the following monographs: Milton Hamilton, "Joseph Brant: The Most Painted
Indian: New York History, Vol. 39, No.2 (1958), pp. 119-133, and
J .R. Fawcett Thompson "Thayendanegea the Mohawk and his Several Portraits: The Connoisseur, Vol. 170, No. 283 (1969), pp. 49-53.
2 Refer to Ruthven Todd, "The Imaginary Indian in Europe: Art in America,
Vol. 60, No. 4 (1972), pp. 40-47, and Elwood Parry, The
Image of the Indian and the Black Man in American Art: 1590-1900 (New
3 Refer to Hugh Honour, The European Vision of America (The Cleveland
Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio: 1976) for decorative arts of this nature.
4 Robert C. Smith, The Noble savage: The American Indian in Art (University Museum, Philadelphia: 1958),
5 The author has relied upon Diamond Jenness' Indians of Canada (National
Museum of Canada, 6th Edition. Bulletin 65, Anthropological Series No.15,
1932; rpt. Ottawa, Canada: 1967, Chapter 10), for information on the social
organization of the Iroquois.
6 Le Moyne, a Huguenot colonist and settler in Aorida and artist to
the French expedition, made drawings of Indians he had seen at the colony.
He returned to London to prepare a manuscript of the short-lived Huguenot
settlement. Aemish Théodore de Bry (1528-1598), and his sons engraved
le Moyne's drawings for the second volume of a series of travels entitled
les Grands Voyages and published at Frankfurt in 1591.
7 Thévet's two three-quarter portrait engravings, one of the
King of Peru and one of the King of Mexico, show their heads facing the
viewer. Their portraits were the first to have the double intention of
presenting an Indian portrait, but especially the notion of a chief.
See André Thévet, Les Vrais Portraits et Vies des Hommes
Illustrés (1584; rpt. New York: Scholars' Facsimiles), Vol.
2, p. 641 and p. 644.
8 N. Jaye Frederickson and Sandra Gibb, The Covenant Chain: Indian
Ceremonial and Trade silver (Ottawa: The National Museum of Man, 1980),
p. 43. The author has depended upon this text to interpret the silver worn
by Joseph Brant in his portraits.
9 John Verelst, an Anglo-Dutch artist, was a member of a family of Dutch
artists, several of whom worked in England. He was probably the son of
a flower painter, Cornelius Verelst .In his obituary he was described as
a "noted face painter" in The Gentleman's Magazine. Numerous signed
portraits by him dated between 1706 and 1734 have been recorded mainly
in English country homes. Biography from Hugh Honour, cat, no.170.
10 - Translated literally, this means "Two-sticks-of-wood-bound-together:
which denotes strength. Also, the name has been interpreted in the literature
as "He-who-places-two-bets." It was general practice among the Indian tribes
for a person to acquire a new name, or a nickname, at each of the important
events of life. At birth, the name of an ancestor could be used, according
to the white man's tradition, to preserve the continuity of the Indian's
clan. A name could also be derived from a dream or other significant occurrence
at the time of birth, or at the first indications of a special personality
trait. Some Indians waited until a later age to name a child, such as
at puberty, or after a war or hunting exploit, or after an elevation in
tribal rank. As well, retirement from active participation in tribal life
was deemed a propitious time. Many Indian names have an allegorical meaning
which cannot be translated, so English spelling is phonetic, and never
uniformly set down. This accounts for the various spellings for Brant's
Indian name in the literature.
11 W. L. Morton, The Kingdom of Canada (Toronto: McClelland and
Stewart, 1970), p. 167.
12 The main sources for biographical and historical information used
in this article are: W. L. Stone, Life of Joseph Brant (1838: rpt.
New York: Kraus, 1969); Marc. J. Smith, "Joseph Brant, Mohawk Statesman,"
Diss. The University of Wisconsin, 1946; and Robert S. Allen, 'The British
Indian Department and the Frontier in North America: 1755-1830," Canadian
Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaelogy and History, No. 14
(National Historic Parks and Sites Branch, Parks Canada, Indian and Northern
Affairs, Ottawa: 1975).
13 Smith, p. 5. For a summary of family tradition as understood by the
Reverend John Stuart, Brant's friend and contemporary, as told to Brant's
biographer, see Stone.
14 J. W. Lydekker, The Faithful Mohawks (New York: 1938), p. 55.
15 Jenness states (p. 137) that Indian men confined their activities
to hunting, fishing, trading, and war, leaving agriculture to women.
16 Several portions of the Bible had already been translated into Mohawk
at that time, but Stuart felt that the New Testament should be translated,
which Brant agreed to do. They translated the Gospel of Mark, part of the
Acts of the Apostles, and a history of the Bible with a concise explanation
of the Catechism. This text, The Book of Common Frayer Translated into
the Mohawk by Joseph Brant (London: 1786-1787), was Illustrated by
Lieutenant James Peachy (d. 1799), who was active in America from 1774-1797.
Peachy was the English officer-surveyor attached to the Quebec office of
the Surveyor-General of Canada, who worked along the St Lawrence River
following the American Revolution. Peachy executed drawings of Joseph Brant's
wife Katerine, and one is reproduced in Russel Harper's Early Fainters
and Engravers in Canada (Great Britain: 1970), p. 246.
17 Allen, p. 101.
18 Allen, p. 101.
19 See Isaac Weld, Travels Through the States of North America, and the
of Upper Canada, During the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797 (London:
Stockdale, 1799); Barry Lord, The History of Painting in Canada:
Towards a People's Art (Toronto: NC Press, 1974), p. 84; and Heritage
Kingston (Queen's University, 1973), pp. 40-41.
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