This is an 1865 portrait of California mountain man, Seth Kinman.
Kinman (1815-1888) was a settler in Humboldt County, and killed nearly 1,000 grizzly bears. He used two grizzly skins to make this famous “grizzly chair,” which he presented to President Andrew Johnson. (There’s a colorized version of this image in the ongoing Lounge thread titled “The Latest Abomination.”)
The detail that struck me first was the way his left hand is composed – imitating the bear claws next to it. It suggests to me that Kinman was a vicious man indeed. Yet his graceful, cross-legged posture suggests civilization, like he’s discussing Mark Twain in an upscale hotel lobby. One might also note Kinman’s baby face setting-off the grizzly’s angry snarl. More could be said about his body language & the careful arrangement of the props.
Do you think this image succeeds as complex portraiture?
Or is it little more than cheap melodrama?
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