Cú-sick, Son of the Chief
1837-1839?
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
1985.66.271
Tags
About this artwork
Cú-sick was a member of the Tuscarora tribe, one of the tribes of the confederacy called the Six Nations. George Catlin thought him "a very talented manâhas been educated for the pulpit in some one of our public institutions, and is now a Baptist preacher, and I am told a very eloquent speaker." (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 47, 1841; reprint 1973)
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 ...