Ye-hów-lo-gee, The Cloud, a Chief

About this artwork

George Catlin described the Cloud as “a Chief who distinguished himself in the [Seminole] war” and as “a very good-natured, jolly man, growing fat in his imprisonment.” The artist painted this portrait at Fort Moultrie, near Charleston, South Carolina, in January 1838. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 57, 1841, reprint 1973, and 1848 Catalogue, Catlin’s Indian Gallery, SAAM online exhibition)

Art Historical Context

In the heart of George Catlin's monumental project to document Native American cultures, *Ye-hów-lo-gee, The, a Chief* (1838) captures aole leader imprisoned during the Second Seminole War (1835–1842). Painted at Fort Moultrie near Charleston, South Carolina, January 1838, this oil portrait portrays the chief with a dignified yet affable presence. Catlin himself described him "a Chief who distinguished himself in the [eminole] war" "a very good-natured, jolly man growing fat in his imprisonment," highlighting the humanity amid hardship. Catlin, a pioneering 19th-century artist and ethnographe...

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 ...