This vertical portrait shows the head, shoulders, and chest of an indiginous Iowan man with brown skin whose face is mostly painted with red and green. His body and face are angled to our right and he looks into the distance with dark eyes. Crimson-red paint covers his forehead, the sides of his cheeks, and neck. Four parallel lines of pine green angle up his right cheek, on our left, like the four fingers of a hand. A green line on the other cheek could be the thumb, and the palm might have left the green mark on his chin. The man’s nose and cheeks near the nose are unpainted. His spiky…
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The White Cloud, Head Chief of the Iowas

George Catlin (American, 1796 - 1872)

1844/1845

Medium
oil on canvas
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
overall: 71 x 58 cm (27 15/16 x 22 13/16 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
Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed

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