Tóh-to-wah-kón-da-pee, Blue Medicine, a Medicine Man of the Ting-ta-to-ah Band
1835
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
1985.66.73
Tags
About this artwork
George Catlin described Blue Medicine, a member of the Eastern Sioux/Dakota tribe, as a noted doctor or medicine man, “with his medicine or mystery drum and rattle in his hands, his looking-glass on his breast, his rattle of antelope's hoofs, and drum of deer-skins.” The artist painted this portrait in 1835 at Fort Snelling, a military post in today’s Minnesota. (Catlin, 1848 Catalogue, Catlin’s Indian Gallery, SAAM online exhibition)
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 ...