Charles Deas Biography

Charles Deas (1818-1867) was an American painter noted for his oil paintings of Native Americans and fur trappers of the mid-19th century.

Deas was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a son of William Allan Deas (1764-1863) and Anne (née Izard) Deas (1764-1863), a daughter of the 18th-century American politician Ralph Izard of South Carolina and his wife, Alice De Lancey Izard.

He attempted, and failed, to obtain an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. As a young man, he studied under John Sanderson in Philadelphia and subsequently embarked upon a career as a painter. The National Academy of Design in New York soon recognized his work, electing him as an associate member in 1839.

By 1840, he had decided to emulate one of his influences, George Catlin, and travel westward in the United States. It was during travels through the Wisconsin Territory that he became a noted painter of trappers and American Indians. By 1841, Deas had decided to establish his base in St. Louis, Missouri. During this time, Deas would typically spend "a few months among the Indian tribes, familiarising himself with their manners and customs."

The artist's works are described as expressing "psychological tension, perceived danger, alarm, and flight," epitomized by his painting Death Struggle, which depicts an Indian and a trapper locked in combat while falling to their deaths from a cliff.

Deas was most famous while he was still alive. One critic, in 1947, stated that the painter was considered to have "enjoyed more of a reputation during his own lifetime" than currently. Between 1841 and 1848, Deas regularly exhibited his works in St. Louis at the "Mechanics Fairs." He also shipped many of his works for sale to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts as well as to New York's American Art Union.

Deas returned to New York in 1848 and expressed a desire to open a gallery of Indian art. Before he could do this, he was declared legally insane. While he was institutionalised, his paintings were described as being particularly intense. "One of his wild pictures, representing a black sea, over which a figure hung, suspended by a ring, while from the waves a monster was springing, was so horrible that a sensitive artist fainted at the sight."

On 23rd May 1848, Deas was committed to New York's Bloomingdale Asylum (a site now occupied by Columbia University). He was institutionalised for the rest of his life.

Deas died of "apoplexy" (possible stroke) in Bloomingdale Asylum on 23rd March 1867.