Tís-se-wóo-na-tís, She Who Bathes Her Knees, Wife of the Chief
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
1985.66.144
Tags
About this artwork
George Catlin painted this image of Bathes Her Knees, wife of the Cheyenne chief Wolf on the Hill, in 1832 at Fort Pierre, in present-day South Dakota. Catlin described her as “comely, and beautifully dressed; her dress of the mountain-sheep skins, tastefully ornamented with quills and beads, and her hair plaited in large braids, that hung down on her breast.” Catlin depicted Bathes Her Knees in an elegant dress of mountain-sheep skins embroidered with both quills and beads in the geometric desi...
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 ...