Waw-gas-kontz or "The Little Rat"
Artist
Paul Kane
(Canadian, 1810 - 1871)
Date1846
Mediumoil on paper
Dimensions8 1/8 x 7 inches (20.6 x 17.8 cm)
Credit LineBequest of H.J. Lutcher Stark, 1965
Object number31.78.167
ClassificationsPaintings
DescriptionThe figure is Saul teaux.Label TextIn the Portrait Log Paul Kane recorded that sketch No. 2 was a portrait of Little Rat. The number 2 written at the bottom of this sketch links it to that Log. In the published version of Wanderings, however, Kane contradicted his own notes by saying that Little Rat had refused to pose for him. The unpublished manuscript for Pictorial Sketches provides an explanation for this contradiction. In Pictorial Sketches Kane described the sketch of Wawgaskontz. "Wawgaskontz (the little rat). A chief whose sketch I took at Rainy Lake. I had first applied to the head chief for permission to take his likeness but was refused on the grounds that he feared something bad would result to him from having his likeness taken, but after 'the loud speaker' and 'the little rat' had sat to me, he felt ashamed of his cowardice...." By the time Kane published his book he had dropped the reference to the unnamed head chief who refused to pose.
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
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