Wah-chee-háhs-ka, Man Who Puts All Out of Doors

About this artwork

Man Who Puts All Out of Doors was a member of the Winnebago tribe, and George Catlin described him as “the largest man of the tribe, with rattle-snakes' skins on his arms, and his war-club in his hand.” (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 52, 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 ...