Francois Lucie, a Cree Half-Breed Guide

Artist Paul Kane (Canadian, 1810 - 1871)

Date1847

Mediumoil on paper

Dimensions11 x 8 13/16 inches (27.9 x 22.4 cm)

Credit LineBequest of H.J. Lutcher Stark, 1965

Object number31.78.147

ClassificationsPaintings

Label TextAt Fort Edmonton, Kane sketched Francois Lucie, a guide of Cree and French descent. “We had not left the fort more than five or six miles behind us, when we fell in with an enormous grisly bear, but François would not fire at him, nor allow me to do so, although I told him I had helped kill one before. A younger man than he, who had his character to make, might have been foolish enough to have run the risk, for the sake of the standing it would have given him amongst his companions; but François had a character established, and could not risk attacking so formidable an animal with only two men." Kane, Wanderings of an Artist, Chapter XXII

ProvenanceArtist; by descent to his grandson, Paul Kane III [1889-1958], Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; purchased September 17, 1957 through (Edward Eberstadt & Sons, New York, New York) by H.J. Lutcher Stark [1887-1965]; bequeathed September 2, 1965 to the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation; accessioned to the Stark Museum of Art

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