Joc-o-sot, the Walking Bear
Medium
Graphic Arts-Print
Classification
Graphic Arts-Print
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the National Museum of Natural History, Department of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution
Accession Number
1985.66.386,592N
Tags
Art Historical Context
George Catlin's *Joc-o-sot, the Walking Bear* is a striking full-length portrait print capturing the dignified presence of a Sauk Native American warrior. Painted during Catlin's extensive travels among Indigenous tribes in the 1830s, this work is part of his ambitious Indian Gallery—a collection of over 600 portraits and scenes aimed at preserving vanishing cultures amid rapid American expansion. Joc-o-sot, whose name translates to "Walking Bear," embodies the strength and individuality Catlin sought to immortalize. As a graphic arts print, likely a lithograph derived from Catlin's original ...
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 ...