Au-nim-muck-kwa-um, Tempest Bird
1845
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
1985.66.535
Tags
About this artwork
In the 1840s, George Catlin traveled to Europe to exhibit and promote his Indian Gallery; and during those years, delegations of Iowa and Ojibwe joined him. In the spring of 1845, Catlin took his Indian Gallery and the visiting Iowa to Paris, where their performances drew the interest of such cultural figures as Victor Hugo and Eugène Delacroix. When the Iowa returned to the United States, they were replaced by a group of Ojibwe, including Tempest Bird, Bird of Thunder, and Pelican. They so ent...
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 ...