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
1985.66.386,593S
Tags
Art Historical Context
George Catlin's *Mah-to-toh-pa, the Mandan Chief* a striking full-length print from his renowned series of Native American portraits, now housed in the Smithsonian American Museum. Created as a graphic arts print—likely a reproduction of Catlin's original 1830s oil painting work captures the dignified presence of Mah-to-toh-pa, as Four Bears, a prominent leader of the Mandan tribe along the Upper Missouri River.lin, a self-taught artist and ethnographer, traveled extensively in the American West during the early 19th century, painting over 600 portraits to document indigenous cultures he feare...
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 ...