Hee-láh-dee, Pure Fountain, Wife of The Smoke
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
1985.66.96
Tags
About this artwork
George Catlin described Pure Fountain as a âyoung and very pretty woman . . . her neck and arms were curiously tattooed, which is a very frequent mode of ornamenting the body amongst this and some other tribes . . . done by pricking into the skin, gunpowder and vermilion.â He painted Pure Fountain at a Ponca village in 1832. (Catlin, Letters and Notes , vol. 1, no. 26, 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 ...