Hee-doh'ge-ats, a Young Man
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
1985.66.148
Tags
About this artwork
George Catlin described this youth as a âChinook boy, of fifteen or eighteen years of ageâ whose head had never been flattened. The young manâs true identity has been the subject of some speculation. A similar image of a Chinook boy appears in McKenney and Hallâs three-volume study, The Indian Tribes of North America (1933). That boy (or young man), whose name was Stumanu, toured Atlantic Coast cities in 1838 and 1839. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 48, 1841, reprint 1973; Truet...
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 ...