Cronau Original Sketch of Tatanka-Washila, a Dakota

TATANKA-WASHILA, A DAKOTA INDIAN, 1881 {ONE BULL}
Rudolf Cronau (1855-1939)
Graphite on paper
Signed, inscribed and dated lower left: R. Cronau / Ft. Randall Oct. 1881
14 5/8 x 10 7/8 inches sheet.
Provenance: The Artist, New York; Margaret Cronau Wunderlich, daughter of the artist ; and by descent.
A Loyal follower of Sitting-bull who Cronou notes in his writings for Tatanka-Washila's great beauty and vast number of wives for his young age.
Born in Solington, Germany, in 1855, Rudolf Cronau was considered by his peers to be one of the leading "Special Correspondents" of his day; writing and illustrating his articles. Cronau studied at the Dusseldorf Academy, principally under Andreas Muller and later with Andreas Achenbach. After his studies, he was employed in Leipzig by its two most important weekly newspapers, Das Illustrirte Zeitung and Die Gartenlaube. Over the next decade, Cronau contributed to both newspapers and wrote numerous books on his travels.
Cronau "recognized, articulated, and helped to perpetuate a sense of affinity that had long been a part of many Germans' interests in American Indians. He captured the excitement and melancholy of first encounters that were often lost in the broader literature but characteristic of individual experience," (Penny 98).