John Hauser

Biography

(American, b. 1859 - d. 1918)

John Hauser was born to German immigrants in Clifton, Ohio in 1859 and died October 6, 1918 in Cincinnati, Ohio. After showing an early interest in drawing, he enrolled at the Ohio Mechanics' Institute to begin studying drawing. Hauser then moved to Cincinnati where he began his more formal art training at the Cincinnati Art Academy and later at the McMicken Art School.

In 1880, John Hauser traveled to Munich to study at the Royal Academy of Art under Nicholas Gysis (1842-1901). Returning to Cincinnati, he supported himself by teaching art in the public schools.

In 1885, Hauser returned to Germany to continue working under Gysis and others at Dusseldorf Academy. Like other American artist during this period, Hauser journeyed to Paris to study at the École des Beaux Arts.

By the 1890s, Hauser had become interested in Indigenous Americans; he traveled through reservation after reservation of the Apache and Pueblo tribes in Arizona and New Mexico, sketching and painting. He became a trusted friend of the Sioux Nation. In 1901, Hauser and his wife were adopted by the Sioux Nation whose members gave him an Indian name, "Straight White Shield."

For the next 20 years, Hauser and his wife continued travel West, recording through his drawing and painting how the Native Americans lived and worshiped. He became known as the American Indian painter. However, his reputation wasn't only for his artistic ability, it was for the authenticity with which he recorded the vanishing way of life of Native Peoples.

Hauser painted portraits of many of America's most famous Native chiefs of the day. His legendary portraits included; Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, American Horse, Spotted Tail, High Horse and Lone Bear. The model for the Indian Head Nickel of the United States government was a composite of two Hauser portraits; Chief Iron Tail, Sioux and Chief John Big Tree, Iroquois.

Besides his small portraits, Hauser painted large canvases of hunters and village life in his careful, realistic and authentic style.

Museum Collections

Phoenix Art Museum, AZ
Orlando Museum of Art, FL
Joslyn Art Museum, NE
Rockwell Museum of Western Art, NY
Gilcrease Museum, OK
Cincinnati Art Museum, OH