Ha-wón-je-tah, One Horn, Head Chief of the Miniconjou Tribe
1832
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
1985.66.69
Tags
About this artwork
Among the first portraits George Catlin painted on his voyage up the Missouri River in 1832 were those of the Sioux encamped at Fort Pierre. Catlin described Ha-wón-je-tah as âA middle-aged man, of middling stature, with a noble countenance, and a figure almost equalling the Apollo, and I painted his portrait . . . He told me he took the name of âOne Hornâ (or shell) from a simple small shell that was hanging on his neck, which descended to him from his father, and which, he said, he valu...
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 ...