The Falls

Title: Father Hennepin at the Falls of St. Anthony
Type: Art
Date: ca. 1905
Source: Douglas Volk

Description: American artist Douglas Volk painted this interpretation of Father Hennepin naming the Falls. The painting now hangs in the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul.

Activities:

1. Father Hennepin had been captured by the Dakota Indians shortly before locating the Falls. What about the Indians in this picture would suggest to you that the artist had not taken that fact into account?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: The Indians in this picture seem to be following Father Hennepin, as if he were their leader, which would probably not be the case if he had been captured.
2. This painting was done in the 1800s almost 200 years after Hennepin discovered the Falls. What does this suggest about the accuracy of the painting itself?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: The artist was not there at the time and would not have been able to interview anyone who might have been there, so he painted it as he imagined it. This makes the source less accurate for researchers.
3. Sometimes artists will paint pictures that are not completely realistic. What about this picture do you think might be more imagined than real?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: Hennepin's clothes appear clean and pressed after months in the wilderness, the Indians are accompanying him (from what we know, he was alone at the time) and the Falls are situated where they were in the artist's time period, not downstream where they were when Hennepin saw them.
4. How might this painting have been different if a Dakota Indian had painted it?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: This painting is done from a white, European perspective, and the Dakota Indians in the picture are not necessarily drawn accurately. A Dakota Indian painting a picture of the same event would probably more accurately show the role Hennepin did or did not have in the event and the role of the Dakota in the event.