Assiniboin Chiefs at Rocky Mountain House
Artist
Paul Kane
(Canadian, 1810 - 1871)
Date1848
Mediumwatercolor and pencil on paper
Dimensions5 3/8 x 9 inches (13.7 x 22.9 cm)
Credit LineBequest of H.J. Lutcher Stark, 1965
Object number31.78.112
ClassificationsPaintings
Label Text"We arrived at Rocky Mountain Fort on the 21st of April.... The Assiniboines, who reside in the vicinity of this fort, I found the most kind and honourable of any tribe that I met with.... Mah-Min, 'The Feather,' their head chief, permitted me to take his likeness, and after I had finished it, and it was shown to the other who all recognized and admired it, he said to me, 'You are a greater chief than I am, and I present you with this collar of grizzly bear's claws, which I have worn for twenty-three summers, and which I hope you will wear as a token of my friendship.' This collar I have, of course, brought home with me.
The second chief, Wah-he-joe-tass-e-neen, 'The half-white Man,' seeing that I was so successful with his head chief's likeness, and probably feeling a little jealous, came and requested me to take his also, which I willingly did, as he has one of the most extraordinary countenances I had met with for some time." Kane, Wanderings, XXIV
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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