Náh-pope, Soup, adviser to Black Hawk
1832
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.
Accession Number
1985.66.8
Tags
About this artwork
“Muk-a-tah-mish-o-kah-kaik (the black hawk) is the man to whom I have above alluded, as the leader of the ‘Black Hawk war,’ who was defeated by General Atkinson, and held a prisoner of war, and sent through Washington and other Eastern cities, with a number of others, to be gazed at . . . I believe it has been pretty generally admitted, that ‘Nah-pope’ and the ‘Prophet’ were, in fact, the instigators of the war; and either of them with much higher claims for the name of warrior than Black Hawk e...
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 ...