Pah-te-cóo-saw, Straight Man, Semicivilized
1830
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
1985.66.280
Tags
About this artwork
George Catlin recorded that when Pah-te-cóo-saw came to sit for his portrait, he had decorated his face “in a very curious manner with black and red paint.” The warrior has slightly European features and appears to be wearing a European shirt and coat. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 49, 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 ...