[Geysers] Yellowstone engravings

[Karen Webb]

Yes, I assumed those were hobbits, and small ones at that...
Karen

Paul Strasser wrote:

> Scott –
>
> You don’t understand.
>
> People were /tiny/ back then.
>
> Paul
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *From:* geysers-bounces at wwc.edu [mailto:geysers-bounces at wwc.edu] *On 
> Behalf Of *TSBryan at aol.com
> *Sent:* Friday, April 07, 2006 5:13 PM
> *To:* geysers at wwc.edu
> *Subject:* [Geysers] Yellowstone engravings
>
> A few days ago I posted a query, then later one of the early 
> engravings I have of Yellowstone thermal features, each of which 
> includes one or more highly exaggerated human figures (they always of 
> ridiculously small scale per reality). Lee Whittlesey, who by the way 
> has no direct knowledge of any of these artists, advised me to contact 
> Peter Hassrick, author of _Drawn to Yellowstone_ and employed at the 
> Denver Art Museum. He replied, and while I still know rather little, 
> what I do know is more than before. In summary:
>
> E. Riou is no doubt Edouard Riou, better known as a French landscape 
> painter, lived 1833 to 1900. We don't know if he ever came to the USA, 
> but most likely his drawings were simply based on W. H. Jackson's 
> photos, and embellished.
>
> The artists of "The Great Geyser", the image that shows a huge Crested 
> Pool with Castle's cone (a nd a highly imaginative steam plume to the 
> right of the cone) was done by one T. Hildebrand. We still know 
> nothing whatsoever about him. He undoubtedly was German, yes, but 
> that's all we know.
>
> A last image I have is done in the same fashion as the others, in this 
> case showing the cone of Giant Geyser in eruption with a tiny little 
> man running hell-bent away from it. (In this case, by extrapolation, 
> Giant's cone must be at least 25 feet tall -- moe, actually, since the 
> poor scared gentleman in well closer to the viewer than is the 
> geyser.) This image appeared in _Picturesque America..._, written and 
> published by William Cullen Bryant in (remarkably) 1872. In this case, 
> we do know that the artist was Harry Fenn and that he did base his 
> drawings on Jackson's photos. Fenn apparently has some sort of 
> biography in _Who Was Who in American Art, volume 1, by Peter Hastings 
> Falk (Sound View Press, 1999) Might anybody have access to that?.. 
> I'll include the Giant image here.
>
> Scott Bryan
>
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