Notch-ee-nÃng-a, No Heart, (called White Cloud), Chief of the Tribe
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
1985.66.256
Tags
About this artwork
No Heart was chief of the Iowas, and when he sat for George Catlin in 1832, he was, the artist later wrote, âtastefully dressed with a buffalo robe wrapped around him, with a necklace of grizzly bear's claws on his neck; with shield, bow, and quiver on, and a profusion of wampum strings on his neck.â Catlin probably painted No Heart at Fort Leavenworth, in present-day Kansas. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 34, 1841; reprint 1973)
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 ...