Wah-ro-née-sah, The Surrounder, Chief of the Tribe
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
1985.66.117
Tags
About this artwork
George Catlin described this sitter as “quite an old man; his shirt made of the skin of a grizzly bear, with the claws on.” The Surrounder was chief of the Otoe tribe, who lived in spacious timber lodges perched on a ridge overlooking the Platte River. His bear claw necklace suggests he was a member of the Bear Clan, which shared leadership of the Otoes with the Buffalo Clan. Catlin probably painted The Surrounder at Fort Leavenworth (in today’s Kansas) in 1832. (Catlin, 1848 Catalogue, Catlin’s...
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 ...