A horizontal oval is divided vertically into two portraits to show the same brown-skinned man twice, once wearing Assiniboine tribal attire and once wearing a dark, military-style suit in this painting. In both portraits, the man has dark eyes and brows, high cheekbones, and a sloping nose. Straight black hair hangs around his face and down his back, and he wears red, blue, or white earrings from multiple piercings on his ear lobes. Both stand in landscapes with pale green trees and grass under ice-blue skies, and there are buildings in the distance of each. To our left, the man stands…
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Assinneboine Chief before and after Civilization

George Catlin (American, 1796 - 1872)

1861/1869

Medium
oil on card mounted on paperboard
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
overall: 46.9 x 64 cm (18 7/16 x 25 3/16 in.)
Culture
American
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CAB
Credit line
Paul Mellon Collection
Rights
Public domain (NGA Open Access, CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed

View at the National Gallery of Art