Wáh-chees, a Brave

About this artwork

“The Menomonies. Like the Winnebagoes, are the remnant of a much more numerous and independent tribe, but have been reduced and enervated by the use of whiskey and the ravages of the small-pox, and number at this time, something like three thousand, living chiefly on the banks of Fox River, and the Western shore of Green Bay. They visit Prairie du Chien, where their annuities are paid them; and they indulge in the bane [of alcohol].” (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 52, 1841; reprint 1973...

Art Historical Context

George Catlin's *Wáh-chees, a* (1835 or 1836) captures the dignified likeness of a Menominee warrior during a pivotal era of American expansion. As a pioneering artist and ethnographer, Catlin traveled through the American West in the 1830s, painting over portraits of Native American leaders and everyday people. His oil painting, now in the Smithsonian American Art Museum exemplifies his commitment to documenting indigenous cultures before they were irrevocably altered by U.S. policies and settlement. In his *Letters and Notes* (1841), Catlin described the Menominee—once a powerful tribe—as ...

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 ...