George CatlinAmerican, 1796–1872Deep Lake, an Old Chief
Can I see it?
Unknown
Where is “Deep Lake, an Old Chief” now? Collection: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Unknown.
Washington, D.C., United States
The owner is known; whether it is on view today is not.
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
In 1830, Catlin accompanied William Clark, of the celebrated Lewis and Clark expedition, up the Mississippi River from St. Louis to Fort Crawford. Before he began more extensive travels in 1832, however, he spent time in eastern cities, where he often saw visiting delegations of Native Americans and was able to paint their portraits. In Washington, D.C., in January and February 1831, Catlin painted Menominee and Seneca delegations, including this portrait of the Ohio Seneca chief Deep Lake. The chief and other members of his tribe were in the capital to negotiate a treaty for the sale of their lands south of Lake Erie. By 1838, the Senecas’ removal from their remaining lands had been set out in the Treaty of Buffalo Creek, and the tribe was to remove to what is known today as Kansas. (Truettner, The Natural Man Observed, 1979; Hoxie, ed., Encyclopedia of North American Indians, 1996)
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Details
- Accession number
- 1985.66.264
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Image: Smithsonian American Art Museum — CC0
In the life of George Catlin
The whole life1830
First journey west with Governor Clark
He accompanies William Clark, governor of the Missouri Territory, on a diplomatic mission to Fort Crawford and then up the Mississippi into Native territory.
1830–1836
Five journeys into the American West
St. Louis was his base for the five trips and the steamer Yellowstone of the American Fur Company his first transport; he visited 48 tribes in all (other accounts say about fifty). On trips along the Arkansas, Red and Mississippi rivers, in Florida and around the Great Lakes he painted more than 500 pictures and gathered a substantial collection of artifacts.
1832
Up the Missouri to Fort Union
He ascends the Missouri more than 3,000 km to the Fort Union trading post (today on the North Dakota–Montana border) and spends several weeks among peoples little touched by European culture. Visiting eighteen tribes, among them the Pawnee, Omaha, Ponca, Mandan, Hidatsa, Cheyenne, Crow, Assiniboine and Blackfeet, he paints the most vivid portraits of his career.
March 1833
Prince Maximilian’s expedition sees his work
At Major O’Fallon’s country estate near St. Louis, members of Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied’s scientific and ethnographic expedition look over the works from Catlin’s first Missouri expedition, among them the Swiss artist Karl Bodmer, who later painted many Native American portraits and scenes of his own.
winter 1833 – 1834
Winter in Pensacola, then New Orleans
He spends the winter in Pensacola, Florida, and then moves on to New Orleans.
