# Seneca Steele, a Great Libertine

- By: George Catlin (born Wilkes-Barre, PA 1796-died Jersey City, NJ 1872)
- Date: 1831
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Classification: Paintings
- Dimensions: 21 3/4 x 16 3/4 in. (55.3 x 42.5 cm)
- Culture: Seneca Indians
- Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=4359)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/59514b9778daf02305a3c11190bb673f.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

George Catlin described Seneca Steele as having a “hatchet in his hand.” The artist probably took this portrait in Washington, in February 1831. (Catlin, 1848 Catalogue, Catlin’s Indian Gallery, SAAM online exhibition)