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Show explorers had engaged professional artists to document their journeys. The artist George Catlin had preceded Maximilian and Bodmer the year before, traveling up the Missouri as far as Fort Union at the junction of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers. However, Catlin was not the academic draftsman Bodmer proved to be. Catlin's portraits and views of Indian life are highly interpretive and romanticized impressions when compared with the precise documentary quality of the works Bodmer produced. Maximilian, a trained naturalist, insisted that Bodmer paint with strict attention to detail. The resulting watercolors, upon which the published aquatints were based, had a photographic accuracy that was unequalled. Upon his return to Germany after two years, Maximilian organized his field notes for publication. Meanwhile, Bodmer, in Paris, prepared a series of aquatints based upon his watercolors; these would illustrate Maximilian's account of his adventures. Maximilian's insistence that the text be published in a deluxe edition, illustrated with a total of eighty-one prints, made publishers wary. The popularity of elaborate travelbooks had begun to ebb; there was a glut of such unsold books on booksellers' shelves. Nonetheless, Maximilian persisted and in 1839 the first text and prints were ready for distribution to a disappointingly few subscribers. A French edition in 1840-42 and the English translation, released in 1843, were no more successful. It was a financial disaster for Maximilian. The consequences for Bodmer were even more profound. Although Bodmer spent more than eight years supervising a group of the best French and Swiss etchers to produce his aquatints for Travels, his hopes for financial reward and artistic recognition never materialized during his lifetime. It was left to scientists to appreciate |