Little Bear, Steep Wind, The Dog; Three Distinguished Warriors of the Sioux Tribe

About this artwork

After traveling and painting in South America, George Catlin settled in Brussels in 1860, where he re-created many of the works from his Indian Gallery. He called his second collection “cartoons” because he created the images from pencil outlines drawn on cardboard. In this composition, he combined three individual portraits from the Indian Gallery into a group portrait. “I painted the portrait of a celebrated warrior of the Sioux,” Catlin wrote, “by the name of Mah-to-chee-ga (the lit...

Art Historical Context

George Catlin’s “Little Bear, Steep Wind, The Dog; Three Distinguished Warriors of the Sioux Tribe” brings together three individual Dakota men into a single, striking group portrait. Painted between 1865 and 1871 while Catlin lived in Brussels, the work belongs to his later “cartoon” series—large canvases based on pencil outlines he had first drawn on cardboard. After years of traveling among Native nations, Catlin recreated many of his earlier field sketches so that European audiences could see the faces and stories he had encountered on the American plains. The painting carries a poignant ...

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 ...