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Peter Rindisbacher, painter (born 12 April 1806 in Eggiwil, Switzerland; died 13 August 1834 in St. Louis, Missouri). Rindisbacher is known for having produced the only remaining visual record of early 19th century Hudson’s Bay Company forts lining the route from the Red River Colony to York Factory, as well as the earliest pictorial record of the country West of the Great Lakes.
Early Career as a Painter
Allegedly a Swiss army drummer boy, Peter Rindisbacher immigrated with his family to the Red River Colony in 1821. He painted views of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) forts along the route from York Factory to the colony, leaving the only visual record of them, and the earliest pictorial record of the country West of the Great Lakes.
He spent five years in the colony, contributing to family support by selling paintings of prairie and Indigenous life to HBC officers. Some of these, described as "taken by a gentleman on the spot," in 1823 and 1824, were lithographed and published in London, England, in 1824 and 1825. In 1826, repeated hardships finally drove the family to the United States.
Rindisbacher died at age 28, just as he was gaining success as a portrait artist.
