Wi-lóoh-tah-eeh-tcháh-ta-máh-nee, Red Thing That Touches in Marching, Daughter of Black Rock
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
1985.66.81
Tags
About this artwork
âShe is an unmarried girl, and much esteemed by the whole tribe [Western Sioux/Lakota], for her modesty, as well as beauty. She was beautifully dressed in skins, ornamented profusely with brass buttons and beads. Her hair was plaited, her ears supported a great profusion of curious beads---and over her other dress she wore a handsomely garnished buffalo robe.â Geore Catlin painted this portrait at Fort Pierre in 1832. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 1, no. 27, 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 ...