Tulope, a Choctaw Man
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Artist
Karl BodmerBirth and death dates
1809 - 1893Artist Nationality
SwissTitle
Tulope, a Choctaw ManDate
January 12-18, 1833Dimensions
8 11/16 × 6 3/8 in. (22.1 × 16.2 cm)Medium
Watercolor and graphite on paperInstitution
Joslyn Art MuseumCredit Line
Gift of the Enron Art FoundationAccession Number
1986.49.328Rights (i.e. copyright information)
Joslyn Art MuseumPhotographer credit
Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019Commentary
Dated between January 12 and 18, Bodmer's Indian studies at New Orleans represent members of the Choctaw nation, which once had inhabited large areas of the state of Mississippi and parts of Alabama before being removed to the West by the U.S. government. Depicting a dispirited people in reduced circumstances, these portraits made on the lower Mississippi are a startling contrast to the studies later made among the tribes of the upper Missouri, who at that time still retained much of their traditional culture. The Indians frequenting the New Orleans waterfront seem to have been engaged for the most part in selling or trading produce from the country. They apparently had no place of permanent residence in the city and customarily ate and slept in the streets. "Some of them make their fires on the streets," reported Maximilian in his later account of Bodmer's travels on the Mississippi, "and, like the Negro women, also cook their coffee as well as their somsé, an overboiled meat dish."
References in Journal
February 15, 1833Labels:
genre, portraitApproximate Depicted Location:
New Orleans, Louisiana