1825 painting from Red River colony up for auction

An 1825 watercolour by a young artist from Manitoba's Red River colony is scheduled to go on the block at Sotheby's auction house in New York later this month.

Hunting the Bison was painted in watercolour, pen and ink by Peter Rindisbacher, a Swiss artist who was working with the Hudson's Bay Company in the area south of present-day Winnipeg.

He had moved to the Red River valley when he was just 15 and was 19 when he painted the winter scene of dogs helping to hunt a bison, with hunters in the background.

Rindisbacher's images of Western Plains Indians and their lifestyle, painted during his years in the Red River Colony, became a sensation in Europe, according to Sotheby's.

The auction house called Rindisbacher's paintings the earliest drawn work from the region, preceding the artist George Catlin, who first came to Western Canada in 1830.

Library and Archives Canada has a collection of 40 Rindisbacher works because of his significance as an early chronicler of First Nations life.

Hunting the Bison is inscribed on the back with the name of the artist and of Robert Parker Pelly who was the governor of the colony in 1825.

Rindisbacher left for Wisconsin in 1826 with his family, after their farm was flooded out. He later moved to St. Louis and set up an artist studio but died at age 28 of cholera.

The 22.2-centimetre-by-36.2-centimetre image on a rough paper is being sold June 19 as part of the Graham Arader sale of maps, prints and natural history watercolours.

Sotheby's estimates it could draw bids of $120,000 US to $150,000 US.

Last year, a Rindisbacher watercolour sold for $252,000 US.