Beschreibung:

includes an extensive collection of pictures, mainly taken by Lindneux, approximately 383pp memoirs handwritten by the artist, and various other drawings, letters, and documents related to Lindneux's life and experiences. In his memoirs, Lindneux provides a thorough description of his life from 1871-1961 that serves as a valuable autobiographical source. He was born in New York City to French-Swiss parents who died early in his life. He was raised by an aunt who encouraged him at an early age to draw and who sent him to Europe at age 17 to study art. Between 1888 and 1898, Lindneux studied at Kunst Academy in Dusseldorf under Benjamin Vautier Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris with Michal von Mokacsy, the Acedemy in Munich with Franz Stuck, and several other cities such as London, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, and Budapest. On pages 15-17 of his memoirs, Lindneux discusses journeying to Paris to see Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. While at the show, Lindneux made the resolve that when I am able to paint a good picture I would go back to my own country and paint western American pictures. On this occasion, Lindneux happened to meet the artist Rosa Bonheur while she was sketching horses at the show, and he saw Toulouse-Lautrec when he made a stop at the Moulin Rouge. In 1898, Lindneux returned to America intending to enlist in the Spanish American War, but he arrived at the close of the war. He lived in Boston for a brief amount of time painting portraits before he moved to Denver in 1899 to start painting western pictures. Lindneux thought that he would see what he once witnessed in Buffalo Bill's Show in western America, but he quickly learned that much of the "Wild West" had become too civilized in his opinion. On a trip to Montana, Lindneux became partners with a trapper and roamed the western frontier for months trapping, hunting, and living off the land. He also worked as a cowhand and horse wrangler. At this time, he sketched and painted the cowboys and American Indians that he met. In 1902, Lindneux met and befriended the "Cowboy Artist" Charlie Russell, and spent some time painting with him a few years later. With the encouragement of Russell, Lindneux, or Shorty Bob, as he called himself, returned to New York City in 1904 to sell his western paintings; however, he had to support himself by producing commercial and advertising work. Lindneux attended Wild West Shows in New York that featured both Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill. He eventually met and befriended these men as well as western characters such as Annie Oakley, and he took every opportunity to sketch them while performing. By 1915, Lindneux moved back to Montana and married Gertrude Tenzer, a woman he met in New York. He began to document his surroundings as well as his experiences out west by taking numerous photographs with his press Graflex camera. He even documented the funeral of Buffalo Bill in 1917 with several photographs of the services. After building up his reputation as a western artist, Lindneux won a commission of $10,000 in 1921 to paint a life-sized memorial portrait of Buffalo Bill. As a result of painting this portrait, Lindneux was "adopted" into the Oglala Sioux Tribe in 1923. For several years, he continued to paint and exhibit as well as photograph western scenes and portraits of famous individuals such as General John Pershing. He held highly successful shows in Chicago and in Oklahoma. Between 1937-1938, Lindneux returned to Europe to revisit the cities where he studied and worked as an artist. With his press Graflex, Lindneux documented the sites he saw in England, France, Austria, Germany, and Hungary. He even witnessed a parade honoring Hitler in Vienna. The Europeans honored Lindneux's accomplishments with parties and thorough press coverage, but he had to cut his tour short because war was on the horizon. Upon his return to Denver, Lindneux remained active with painting tours and exhibitions until his death in 1970. In addition to his memoirs,