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711 N. Main Street
Rockford, IL 61103
p 815.968.2787

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Elbridge Ayer Burbank


Born and raised in Harvard, Illinois, Elbridge Ayer Burbank began his studies at the Academy of Design, Chicago (now the Art Institute of Chicago), and finished in Munich and Paris. He returned to Chicago and exhibited at Thurber Galleries and the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1897, Edward E. Ayer, an uncle of the artist and first president of the Field Museum, commissioned him to paint portraits of Geronimo and other Native American chiefs at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He became fascinated with the culture and its people, traveling around the United States throughout the next seventeen years, immersing himself in the differing cultures, and painting more than 1,200 portraits representing 125 tribes. Burbank is the only known person who painted an image of Geronimo from life, and the chief reportedly said he liked the artist “more than any white man” he ever met.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
   
Elbridge Ayer Burbank, Portrait of a Woman, Munich, (detail) 1892




Elbridge Ayer Burbank (American, 1858-1941)
Portrait of a Woman, Munich, 1892, oil on canvas
Gift of Annie Wheeler
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Elbridge Ayer Burbank (American, 1858-1941)
Yeal-Lee, Navajo, 1904, oil on canvas, RAM Purchase
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Elbridge Ayer Burbank (American, 1858-1941)
Chief Sky-Bull, Brule Sioux, 1903, oil on canvas, RAM Purchase
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