Máh-to-tóh-pa, Four Bears, Second Chief in Mourning

About this artwork

George Catlin described Four Bears as being “in undress, being in mourning, with a few locks of hair cut off, his hair put up in plaits or slabs, with glue and red paint, a custom of the tribe. The scars on his breast, arms, and legs show that he has several times in his life submitted to the propitiatory tortures represented in four paintings.” Four Bears had earned the right to wear his horned headdress and his fabled shirt, but even in “undress” he was a hero of the highest order, str...

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 ...