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
1985.66.386,593G
Tags
Art Historical Context
George Catlin's *Mah-to-toh-pa, the Mandan Chief* the dignified presence of a prominent leader from the Mandan tribe a Native American people of the Northern Plains known for their villages and rich cultural traditions. This full-length portrait, rendered as a graphic arts print showcases Catlin's dedication to documenting Indigenous life in the early 19th century. a pioneering artist and ethnographer, Catlin traveled among tribes like the Mandan in the 1830s, creating vivid records before devastating diseases and westward expansion altered their world forever. The print medium allowed Catlin...
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 ...