Mah-to-toh-pa, the Mandan Chief
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
1985.66.386,593F
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the world of George Catlin's *Mah-to-toh-pa, the Mandan Chief*, a striking full-length graphic arts print that captures the dignity of a Native American leader from the early 19th century. Catlin, a pioneering American artist, dedicated much of his career to portraying Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains with remarkable authenticity, traveling among tribes like the Mandan to document their vanishing cultures before widespread European influence. This print, housed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, showcases Mah-to-toh-pa (also known as Four Bears), a respected Mandan chief ...
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 ...