Ramsey County History – Special 1976: “Minnesota Art and Artists: A Pictorial History, 1820–1914”

Minnesota Art and Artists: A Pictorial History, 1820–1914
Author: Rena Neumann Coen

Excerpts from the author’s book, Painting and Sculpture in Minnesota (1976), which was a Bicentennial project, along with an exhibit at the University of Minnesota Gallery. Nineteenth-century American artists, such as Seth Eastman and George Catlin, memorialized Native American life and local flora and fauna. Later nineteenth century American artists toured the Upper Mississippi to illustrate Minnesota scenery. Local primitives rendered pictures of weather and landmarks. Although only one local painter, Douglas Volk, contributed art to the Minnesota Capitol, Alexis Jean Fournier, who had an art education in France, returned to St. Paul to paint vivid depictions of Fort Snelling and Galtier’s Chapel of St. Paul.
PDF of Coen article