Piegan Blackfoot or Gros Ventre Man

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Artist

Karl Bodmer

Birth and death dates

1809 - 1893

Artist Nationality

Swiss

Title

Piegan Blackfoot or Gros Ventre Man

Dimensions

11 7/8 x 9 in. (30.16 x 22.86 cm.)

Medium

Watercolor on paper

Institution

Joslyn Art Museum

Credit Line

Gift of the Enron Art Foundation

Accession Number

1986.49.394

Rights (i.e. copyright information)

Joslyn Art Museum

Photographer credit

Photograph © Bruce M. White, 2019

Commentary

An inscription on a mat that once framed this picture identified the subject as a Piegan Blackfeet. However, the decoration on the buffalo robe is similar to a style Maximilian called typical of the Gros Ventres: narrow, parallel quilled stripes, mostly yellow, with bits of red cloth sewed on at intervals. A Gros Ventre robe decorated in this fashion and similar to the one in the picture was collected by Maximilian and is now at the Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin. The diaries indicate that a drawing was made of a Gros Ventre wearing such a robe, and this may be that individual.

References in Journal

A few words regarding the Blackfoot Indians

Labels:

genre, portrait