No-ho-mun-ya, One Who Gives No Attention

About this artwork

George Catlin described this man as “the finest looking man of the party,” and noted the chief’s “elegant” limbs and “Herculean” frame. The Iowa brave, who was also called “Roman Nose,” died in Liverpool, England, before the Iowa delegation departed for Paris.

Art Historical Context

**No-ho-mun-ya, One Who Gives No Attention (1844) is a striking portrait by George Catlin the pioneering 19th-century American artist for his vivid documentation of Native American life. Catlin, who traveled extensively among tribes in the 1830s, captured the dignity and physical prowess of his subjects in oil paintings that served as both art and ethnography. This work depicts No-ho-mun-ya, an Iowa brave also known asRoman Nose," from a delegation that journeyed to Europe. Tags linking it to Kansas highlight the Iowa people's historical presence in the region during westward expansion. Catli...

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 ...