Shin-gós-se-moon, Big Sail, a Chief
1836?
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
1985.66.198
Tags
About this artwork
From 1830 to 1836, George Catlin traveled the American West to document Native Americans and their customs, and his ambition was to capture Plains Indians untouched by the effects of civilization. But by 1836, the year he painted this portrait of Big Sail, Catlin understood that civilization was indeed encroaching on the ânatural manâ he hoped to document. Catlin probably painted the Ottawa chief at Mackinac, an island in Lake Huron where a remnant of the tribe remained. He described Big Sai...
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 ...