Cree Pipe Stem
Artist
Paul Kane
(Canadian, 1810 - 1871)
Date1848
Mediumoil on paper
Dimensions11 11/16 x 9 7/16 inches (29.7 x 24 cm)
Credit LineBequest of H.J. Lutcher Stark, 1965
Object number31.78.145
ClassificationsPaintings
Label Text"Kee-a-kee-ka-sa-coo-way is the head chief of all the Crees, and was now travelling through all their camps to induce them to take up the tomahawk and follow him on a war excursion in the following spring. He had eleven medicine pipe-stems with him, ten of which belonged to inferior chiefs, who had already consented to join in the expedition.... After some little prolonged ceremony, consisting principally of all present smoking from each stem as it was opened, he permitted me to sketch them, but never left the lodge until I had finished and he had carefully recovered and removed them." Kane, Wanderings, Chapter XXIII
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
Not on view
