The Moose Hunter
The Moose Hunter
Artist
Creation date
1831
Materials
oil on panel
Dimensions
24 x 32 1/8 in.
31 x 39 1/2 in. (framed)
Credit line
The Orville A. and Elma D. Wilkinson Fund
Accession number
73.9.2
Collection
Not Currently On View
To emphasize the untouched quality of the American wilderness, Codman dramatized the Indian's prowess in his native environment.
This landscape surrounded by trees and mountains is a composite of specific and imagined forms, some drawn from prints and literary sources.
The artist, Victor D. Spark New York City, Theodore Stebbins Jr. Northampton, MA 1967, Robert P. Weiman Woodbridge, CO, Indianapolis Museum of Art 1973
Early American
Charles Codman
The Moose Hunter, 1831
oil on panel
24 x 31 1/8 in.
The Orville A. and Elma D. Wilkinson Fund
Learn More
Charles Codman is a relatively unknown artist who was primarily a landscape painter in the area of Portland, Maine, where he was born. Codman learned his craft as an apprentice to a clockmaker, painting clock faces and small paintings on glass and later as a sign painter. His commission to paint an oil tapestry for the Elm Tavern in Portland resulted in local popularity and several painting commissions. John Neal, a prominent author and critic, encouraged Codman’s artistic development. Codman exhibited at the Boston Athenaeum and the National Academy of Design in New York.
The Moose Hunter, surrounded by trees and mountains, is a composite of specific and imagined forms, some drawn from prints and literary sources. To emphasize the untouched quality of the American wilderness, Codman excludes all signs of encroaching civilization, dramatizing instead the American Indian’s prowess in his native environment.
Reference
Jessica Skwire Routhier Nicoll. Charles Codman: The Landscape of Art and Culture in 19th Century Maine, Portland, Oregon: Portland Museum of Art, 2002. ISBN: 0916857328
