Canteen
Unknown Artist
1870
Medium
ceramic, slip
Dimensions
20 × 24.5 cm
Classification
Ceramic
Department
Art of the Americas
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of the Smithsonian Institution
Accession Number
1923.1078
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Since the 1500s, Hopi women made big-bellied canteens, based on Spanish prototypes, and used them to carry water. By the late 1800s, canteens became popular with Euro-American tourists, who increasingly flocked to the Southwest in search of encounters with “exotic” Native American cultures. Thus, Hopi artists embellished their wares to improve their appeal, here with graceful abstract forms.