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Ee-áh-sá-pa, Black Rock, a Two Kettle Chief
George Catlin (born Wilkes-Barre, PA 1796-died Jersey City, NJ 1872)
1832
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- 29 x 24 in. (73.7 x 60.9 cm)
- Culture
- Indians of North America
- 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
Although George Catlin painted many bust-length portraits, this canvas is a rarer full-length figure. Catlin noted that Black Rock, a Western Sioux/Lakota who was highly respected by fur traders, was “a tall and fine looking man, of six feet or more in stature.” His long headdress is made of war-eagles' quills and ermine skins. His stance is regal, with a robe thrown over his shoulders and spear extended. To emphasize Black Rock’s nobility, Catlin borrowed a classical pose that he used frequently for important subjects. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 1, no. 27, 1841, reprint 1973; Truettner, The Natural Man Observed, 1979)
