Rocky Headland with Wigwams in Foreground
Artist
Paul Kane
(Canadian, 1810 - 1871)
Date1845
Mediumoil on paper
Dimensions12 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches (31.1 x 24.8 cm)
Credit LineBequest of H.J. Lutcher Stark, 1965
Object number31.78.192
ClassificationsPaintings
Label TextIn 1845, Paul Kane visited places in the Great Lakes region to document Indian life. He likely sketched this scene at Mackinac (pronounced Mack-i-naw) Island, Lake Huron. Kane spent several weeks on the Island to paint portraits of the Ojibwa and scenes of their dwellings. The rocks that jut out seem to shelter the wigwams of the Ojibwa people. Decades later, the life of the Ojibwa people inspired the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He used studies about the Ojibwa to inspire his epic poem The Song of Hiawatha. (Scholars believe that Paul Kane did not write the ink inscription “Lake Superior.”)
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
On View
On view
