Ki-hó-go-waw-shú-shee, Brave Chief, Chief of the Tribe

About this artwork

“I have visited forty-eight different tribes, the greater part of which I found speaking different languages, and containing in all 400,000 souls. I have brought home safe, and in good order, 310 portraits in oil, all painted in their native dress, and in their own wigwams . . . as well as a very extensive and curious collection of their costumes, and all their other manufactures, from the size of a wigwam down to the size of a quill or a rattle.” George Catlin probably painted Brave Chief, an O...

Art Historical Context

George Catlin's *Ki-hó-go-waw-shú-shee, Brave Chief, Chief of the Tribe* (1832) captures the dignified likeness of an Omaha leader at Fort Leavenworth in present-day Kansas. As a pioneering artist and ethnographer, Catlin painted this oil portrait during his ambitious travels among Native American tribes, documenting their lives before widespread displacement by American expansion. Rendered in the sitter's native dress within his own environment, the work exemplifies Catlin's commitment to authentic representation, blending portraiture with cultural preservation. Catlin's broader project was ...

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 ...