A Choctaw Woman
1834
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.
Accession Number
1985.66.297
Tags
About this artwork
The subject is described by George Catlin as having her hair in braids and a “remarkable expression.” The artist painted this Choctaw woman at Fort Gibson, Arkansas Territory, in 1834. (Catlin, 1848 Catalogue, Catlin’s Indian Gallery, SAAM online exhibition)
Art Historical Context
In 1834, renowned artist George Catlin captured poised likeness of a Choctaw woman in *A Choctaw Woman a knee-length portrait painted at Fort Gibson in the Arkansas Territory (now Oklahoma). Catlin, a pioneering 19th-century painter, dedicated much of his career to documenting Native American life through his vast "Indian Gallery," creating over 600 works to preserve cultures he feared were vanishing due to westward expansion and U.S. policies like the Removal Act of 1830. This piece, now in the Smithsonian American Art, exemplifies his mission to portray indigenous peoples with authenticity a...
About the Artist
George Catlin · 1796–1872
George Catlin (1796–1872), born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to Putnam Catlin and Polly Sutton—who had been captured by Native Americans during the 1778 Battle of Wyoming—initially pursued a legal career. Trained at Litchfield Law School, he was admitted to the bar in 1819 but abandoned law after two years to study art in Philadelphia in 1823. Self-taught as a portraitist, Catlin quickly gained ...