Ahschüpsa-Masihichsi, Hidatsa Man

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Artist

Karl Bodmer

Birth and death dates

1809 - 1893

Artist Nationality

Swiss

Title

Ahschüpsa-Masihichsi, Hidatsa Man

Date

February 28, 1834

Dimensions

12 1/8 × 9 3/16 in. (30.8 × 23.3 cm)

Medium

Watercolor and graphite on paper

Institution

Joslyn Art Museum

Credit Line

Gift of the Enron Art Foundation

Accession Number

1986.49.389

Rights (i.e. copyright information)

Joslyn Art Museum

Photographer credit

Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019

Commentary

A portrait of Ahschüpsa-Masihichsi ("Chief of the Pointed Horn") was done on February 28, 1834, at Fort Clark. He objected to Bodmer's retaining the picture because he was about to leave on a military expedition and evidently feared that leaving his image with others might bring misfortune. When Bodmer refused to make a copy; Ahschüpsa-Masihichsi countered by drawing a picture of the artist-a very creditable likeness, according to Maximilian. The weapon Ahschüpsa-Masihichsi carries is a gunstock club, so named because the wooden handle was copied after the overall shape of a gun. This type of club was noted as early as the beginning of the seventeenth century and was most popular in the eastern woodlands area and on the upper Missouri. The blades, originally made of flaked stone, were later replaced by metal ones obtained from traders. As Maximilian notes in the German edition of Travels in the Interior of North America, Ahschüpsa-Masihichsi appears in Tableau 27 of the aquatints, the second figure from the left among the spectators at a scalp dance. He is pictured again among the Hidatsa men greeting Maximilian and Bodmer in Vignette XXVI.

References in Journal

February 28, 1834

Labels:

genre, portrait , Fort Clark, North Dakota

Approximate Depicted Location:

Fort Clark, North Dakota