Portraits of the Sami by John Francis Campbell

Portraits of the Sami by John Francis Campbell


A fisher Lapp and his son at Hopseidet, past of the North Cape.

Portrait of a Sami fisher man with his son in his arms. date 1852-06-17


Fisher Lapps, brother and sister at Hopseidet.

Two portraits of a brother and sister. Date 1852-06-16

Mathis the handsome savage, Lapp postmaster at Karasjok. Sketched on the steamer.

Portrait of a Karasjok Sami. Date 1851-07-01

Campfire, the Karasjok men.

Campbells Sami guides. Date 1851-07-24


Samuel Samuelsen Mose, Randijauri, Keeper of a mountain station between Alten and Karasjok, Fjeld Lapp.

Portrait of a Sami Man. Date 1851-07-09

Nicholaus. A young Lapp boy sketched in Kota in Tromsø dalen.

Portrait of a Sami boy in the Sami camp in Tromsdalen.

Very interesting and insightful historical portraits from a now vanished time and way of life.

Originally Posted by Nikos

Very interesting and insightful historical portraits from a now vanished time and way of life.

Russia has some cattle dependent nomads, that moves around as their cattles does.
But they're a decreasing bunch of course.

Originally Posted by Cyrus the Virus

Russia has some cattle dependent nomads, that moves around as their cattles does.
But they're a decreasing bunch of course.

I'm sure, but they still have access to many modern equipment and technology.

Originally Posted by Nikos

I'm sure, but they still have access to many modern equipment and technology.

Fair enough. They always have something useful modern things.

I think I'm going to start calling myself 'the handsome savage'.

Perhaps we should dicuss the portaits rather than Pallantides's family.

Anyway, excellent portaits, they're magnificent, all of them.

best....hat....ever

Those are ace paintings.

You look like the Fisher Lapp.

Portrait of the Sami Anders Nilson From Karasjok, 1851.


Portrait of the Sami boy Læme from Leavvajohka, 1851.


From Campbell's journey to Norway 1852, " A little herd boy who had charge of a lot of sheep and bulls and cows that came daily to devour our fish bones and fought continually in our camp."


From Campbell's journey to Norway 1852, Portrait of a young Sami woman said to be "half-breed", "half Norse half Lapp". "Considered to be of great beauty."


From Campbell's journey to Norway 1865. Portrait of the Sami Per Person.




A photography of Sami man from John Francis Campbell's expedition to Tromsø, 1865.

I don't know what it is but there is something very endearing about the Sami, and these portaraits, by John Francis Campbell, seem to capture their innocence for me.

These remind me of the pictures taken by Prokudin-Gorsky on his 1909-1915 tour around Russia to "photograph the whole Empire". He managed to dilute the sepia photography of the time and produce colour photographs (in 1910!) of distant Russian people. It's quite amazing, because some of the photos look as if they're from 1950's technicolor cameras, but they are two generations older! If you didn't know better, you'd think some of the peasants were just re-enactors wearing "period" clothing. The truth, however, is that these were the real human beings of the 1900's being photographed! It is truly an amazing set of real art. Maybe I should post some of them here, and we can compare the indefatigable Rus' with the heroic Sami.

I don't particularly like the impressionistic watercolour style of this artist, but they are still valuable archives.

Nevermind.

Petter Olafson Kackak, a wizard, 80 years old.

From Campbell's journey to Sweden in 1850. Portrait of a Sami Shaman, a Noaide.


A fjeld lapp and his daughter.

portrait of a Sami and his daughter.1851.


Hendrick and Paul playing cards on a butter crock

From Campbell's journey to Norway 1852. Hendrick and Paul, Campell's Boatmen, playing cards.

John, my lapp boatman.

From Campbell's journey to Norway 1852.Portrait of a Sami boatman. Campbell had two boatmen and both are portrayed, Hendrik is the other. Campbell writes: "My two lapp boatmen. Hired at at Polmak June 25th, dismissed at Karasjok august 1st. Both able to read and fine steady fellows and good boatmen."


Lapp Boy.

From Campbell's journey to Norway 1852. Portrait of a Sami boy outside the tent.


Petter Olsen Bygge. A mountain lapp.

From Campbell's journey to Norway 1852. Portrait of a Mountain Sami. Campbell writes: "This was a fine specimen of a pure mountaineer. Rich and wild he was miserable at standing half an hour in a house."


I wonder if the apperance of the Gelfling in The Dark Crystal were inspired by the Sami.


somone told me I look like Jen.

I love this series of paintings, water colour is such an easy medium to get wrong, but this guy was a gifted artist and has managed to produce a whole series of evocotive images. What's the story behind the originals, are they kept together in one collection?

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