Collection consist of watercolours, two portrait miniatures and one drawing by Peter Rindisbacher and prints by or after Peter Rindisbacher, mostly taken on a voyage to Red River from Europe in 1821, but also including views in the Selkirk Settlement, Red River, 1821-1826. Also included are prints after watercolours by Peter Rindisbacher published by H. Jones and Co. in London in a set of six, of which there are several copies and prints. Finally there are photographs of original watercolours and drawings owned by the West Point Museum and the Glenbow Foundation and one photographic copy of a portrait.
Rindisbacher, Peter, 1806-1834 : Peter Rindisbacher was born in Bern, Switzerland, in 1806. He was fifteen years old when he immigrated with his family to Red River Territory (present day Manitoba) in 1821 as part of an effort by Lord Selkirk to settle the region. Rindisbacher had very little formal artistic training, having studied only briefly with Swiss artist Jakob Samuel Weibel (1771-1846), a landscape painter and engraver. Already an accomplished artist when he arrived in Canada, Rindisbacher produced a series of watercolours documenting the voyage to Rupert's Land and life in the colony. He became well known as an artist in Red River and received requests for copies of his works from settlers, Hudson's Bay Company officials and successive governors of the Red River Colony. In 1826, Rindisbacher and his family moved to Gratiot, Wisconsin, where he continued painting. In 1829 Rindisbacher moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and became quite well established as an artist in that city. Rindisbacher died in 1834 at the age of twenty-eight. Several biographies have been written.
