ART OF SETH EASTMAN — ^McDERMOTT 581 



the Indian way of life and the frontier landscape. Relieved at the 

 Military Academy on January 22, 1840, he reported for duty with 

 his regiment in the Florida (Seminole) War of 1840-1841. Three 

 watercolors can be chosen to illustrate his southern tour. "View on 

 the Suwannee liiver" is purely scenic. "Encampment of the 1st In- 

 fantry at Sarasota, Florida" pictures a row of tents under some 

 magnificent live oaks. "Sam Jones' Village" preserves the remains 

 of a Florida Indian village, that of the Seminole chief Arpeika, 

 known also as Sam Jones. 



An oil picturing "Osceola as Captive in an Open Tent, Guarded by 

 a Sentry" poses a problem. The close attention to detail and the 

 handling of the Indian costume certainly suggest Eastman as the 

 author of this unsigned painting which until lately has been in the 

 possession of his descendants. But the facts that Osceola died in 

 Florida in January 1838, that Eastman did not arrive until 2 years 

 later, that there is not the slightest resemblance between this realistic 

 middle-aged Indian and Catlin's romantic young chief painted a few 

 days before Osceola's death, and that Eastman commonly painted 

 from life, all suggest that Eastman's subject must have been another 

 warrior and that the picture was later mislabeled. 



Eastman's next remove, after a 4-month sick leave resulting from 

 the campaign in Florida, was to Fort Snelling in 1841. Although we 

 have almost no details of his art activities during the next 5 years, 

 apparently he painted many portraits, group pictures, and landscapes 

 in oil and in watercolor and accumulated a large portfolio of pencil 

 sketches. One of his few extant portraits, that of "Eta Keazah, 

 Sisseton Sioux at Fort Snelling," assigned by D. I. Bushnell, Jr., 

 to 1844, illustrates in the braiding of the hair and in the treatment 

 of the headcovering the care for detail that was to characterize East- 

 man's paintmg of Indian subjects. 



A glimpse of Eastman's relations as artist with the Indians was 

 later recorded by Mrs. Eastman, who developed such a strong interest 

 of her own in the Sioux that she wrote a book about them. 



Our intercourse with tlie Sioux was greatly facilitated [she wrote], and our 

 influence over them much increased, by the success attending my husband's 

 efforts to paint their portraits. They thought it supernatural (wahkun) to be 

 represented on canvas. Some were prejudiced against sitting, others esteemed 

 it a great compliment to be asked, but all expected to be paid for It. And if 

 anything were wanting to complete our opportunities for gaining all information 

 that was of interest, we found it in the daguerreotype. Capt. E., knowing they 

 were about to celebrate a feast he wished to paint in group, took his apparatus 

 out, and, when they least expected it, transferred the group to his plate. The 

 awe, consternation, astonishment and admiration, surpassed description. "Ho! 

 Eastman is all wahkun !" [5] 



