Wa-quóth-e-qua, The Buck's Wife, Wife of the Whale, by George Catlin, 1835
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Wa-quóth-e-qua, The Buck's Wife, Wife of the Whale

George Catlin (born Wilkes-Barre, PA 1796-died Jersey City, NJ 1872)

1835

Medium
oil on canvas
Classification
Paintings
Dimensions
29 x 24 in. (73.7 x 60.9 cm)
Culture
Fox Indians
Museum
Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Painting and Sculpture
Credit line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.
Rights
CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), 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

View at the Smithsonian Institution

About this work

“Ah-mou-a (the whale and his wife), are also fair specimens of this tribe [Sac and Fox]. Her name is Wa-quo-the-qua (the buck's wife, or female deer), and she was wrapped in a mackinaw blanket, whilst he was curiously dressed, and held his war-club in his hand.” (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 56, 1841; reprint 1973)