Cler-mónt, First Chief of the Tribe, by George Catlin, 1834
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Cler-mónt, First Chief of the Tribe

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

1834

Medium
oil on canvas
Classification
Paintings
Dimensions
29 x 24 in. (73.7 x 60.9 cm)
Culture
Osage 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

“The head-chief of the Osages at this time, is a young man by the name of Clermont, the son of a very distinguished chief of that name, who recently died; leaving his son his successor, with the consent of the tribe. I painted the portrait of this chief at full length, in a beautiful dress, his leggings fringed with scalp-locks, and in his hand his favourite and valued war-club.” (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 38, 1841; reprint 1973)