Painter in a Savage Land: The Strange Saga of the First European Artist in North America by Miles Harvey

Painter in a Savage Land: The Strange Saga of the First European Artist in North America Reviews

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  Tuck

  a bit heavy at times with the history, but miles harvey is a great writer and this is a great and important book on spanish and french conflict in north america and very balanced approach to timucua culture and society. and of course great job on artist/colonialist jacques le moyne de morgues (theodor de bry is maybe better known, but he actually bastardized le moyne's paitings, there are no le moyne paintings left in the world).
  miles harvey also wrote the fantastic book "the island of lost maps: a true story of cartographic crime"
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  Keith Taylor

  Have always felt that this book never received its due. Harvey tells an important story, both about American history and about art history, and he tells it well. Here's something I wrote back in the day:
  
  
  https://annarborobserver.com/articles...
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  Kevin Davis

  A fascinating tale about a little known artist whose work had a profound effect on how Europeans viewed the so-called new world. The narrative is gripping and tells the rich story of early America.
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  Doreen

  I enjoyed this book thorougly though I would not have read it most likely if not for knowing the author. Having said that, I was surprised and delighted by learning about this little-known chapter in early colonial history of the Americas. Additionally, the integrity of the research Harvey has done and his engaging story-telling that spans from the early 16th c. to contemporary times, tracing the life and times of a French painter who appears to have been the first to represent indigenous life in the SE US during a time of intense colonial rivalry and religious violence, is quite impressive. I learned a lot about the early attempts to colonize the area in N. Florida inhabited by several indigenous tribes and fought over by the Spanish and French, animosities that were often spurred by religious antagonism as well as greed and infamy. Harvey extrapolates from a variety of primary documents, mainly diaries, and secondary sources to convey a lively and depressing account of the foibles, prejudices, in-fighting, and ineptitude of the early French explorers.I kept wondering why the hell they were starving to death when the southeastern US has such fertile soil and long growing-seasons. Turns out most of the men who lived at Fort Caroline (a fort never discovered despite an intense excavation in the late 20th c.) were sailors and military personnel and a few skilled workers, and Jacques Le Moyne, a painter. The blunders of these early explorations are highlighted by Harvey especially in relation to their impact on the indigenous tribes residing in an area whose only interest the French had in it was the possibility of finding gold and silver. Fat chance. The magical mountains where these riches were supposed to be were never discovered.
  
  Harvey also covers European history by tracing Le Moyne's eventual departure to England during Queen Elizabeth's reign and the possibilities of his having landed in her court due to his botanical drawings. the book is both micro--providing a case study of European exploration through the eyes of a painter--and macro--pointing to the religious and political rifts occurring in Europe at the time and their effects on the conquest of the New World. Both of which can be seen in the visual complexity and ambiguity of Le Moyne's prints of indigenous peoples. Add on to this, the inability of art historians, critics, and collectors to figure out exactly who Le Moyne was and what he produced due to the printing technologies of the time, the lack of clear artistic copyright, etc. and Harvey's text raises more questions and to the author's credit he does not attempt to suture all of them in a neat and tidy ending.
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  Beth

  Miles Harvey was signing at our Petoskey bookstore, but I missed him by a day, yet still bought his books, both autographed.
  I liked this historical biography better than his other book. Fascinating stuff, early early American history traced to the present via a French protestant artist who travelled to La Florida in the 1560's. I kept an atlas handy for reference.
  It is a time in "American" history we know so little about. Thought Mr Harvey did some excellent detective work in his preparation, and still made it compelling to read. Yet another example of religion pulling the strings on world history.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I missed author Harvey by one day at our local Petoskey bookstore, but fortunately for me, he left some autographed copies for people like me who like maps and history. This is a biography of a French protestant artist who travelled to La Florida in the 1560's to document the trip for his King, and he got a lot more than he bargained for. Compelling stuff, Mr. Harvey did a great job of detective work to pull together as many pieces of the puzzle as he possibly could. He then brought the story full circle into the 21st century, with the artist's work still being collected. Fascinating stuff for people like me.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  Teresa

  I thought it would be pretty interesting to imagine what it would be like to be an artist among a group of soldiers and adventurers traveling to the New World, so I picked up this book on a whim. This book is a fascinating account of the beginning of American history encompassing pirates, cannibals, lost Indian civilizations, gruesome bloodshed, the beginning of the slave trade, and so much more. I also appreciated the art history lesson on Le Moyne as well as the smaller section on John White. One of the most interesting details is how his culture influenced his paintings and documentation of the Native Americans, and how the Spanish Catholics saw documentation of such things as completely unnecessary and even evil. I would recommend this as a well-told history of some of the godfathers of anthropology and scientific discovery and their impact on American history.
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  Jessica - How Jessica Reads

  Miles Harvey tells the story of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, the first European artist in North America. Le Moyne was part of the failed French attempt to establish Fort Caroline in La Florida in the 1550s. I honestly had no idea that the French attempted to colonize in Florida, so that part of the story was interesting, as was the way Harvey was able to evoke the chaotic period of exploration through which Le Moyne's story winds. Unfortunately Le Moyne's life is barely documented, so much of what Harvey was doing was speculating, which got old after a while.
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  Pat

  Harvey made the French and Spanish attempted settlements of America very readable. The book is focused on the life of the first European to create images of the natives he met in Florida in the 1560's. The accounts of the settlements, the murders by both the French and Spanish, and the failed leadership that caused so many deaths were brought into perspective for the times. I loved the book, hated the chapter on the guy who buys historic books and cuts them up to sell individual pages, and look forward to another book by the author.
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  Brian

  amazing account of the first artist sent to N America from France...still don't know how he could have survived everything...from rebelling natives to the religiously crazed spanish (not to mention his ride home eating water and moldy biscuits with no ship navigator).
  it was fun to read.
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  Margaret Sankey

  The "Painter" involved was a Huguenot Frenchman who survived the massacre by the Spanish at Fort Caroline and later got a pity job as the embroidery designer for Charles I's wife Henrietta Maria. The botanical and ethnographic watercolors are beautifully reproduced.
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  Ron

  Interesting look at a little known artist who influenced needlework and Raleigh's attempts to settle Virginia.
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  Kodiaksm

  History and art mix well. Light reading and kept my interest.