Crow Lodge of Twenty-five Buffalo Skins

George Catlin, Crow Lodge of Twenty-five Buffalo Skins, 1832-1833, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.491
Copied George Catlin, Crow Lodge of Twenty-five Buffalo Skins, 1832-1833, oil on canvas, 2429 in. (60.973.7 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.491
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Artwork Details

Title
Crow Lodge of Twenty-five Buffalo Skins
Date
1832-1833
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
2429 in. (60.973.7 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Keywords
  • Figure group
  • Western
  • Indian — Crow
  • Architecture Exterior — domestic — teepee
Object Number
1985.66.491

Artwork Description

“The Crows, of all the tribes in this region . . . make the most beautiful lodge . . . they oftentimes dress the skins of which they are composed almost as white as linen, and beautifully garnish them with porcupine quills, and paint and ornament them in such a variety of ways, as renders them exceedingly picturesque and agreeable to the eye. I have procured a very beautiful one of this description, highly-ornamented, and fringed with scalp-locks, and sufficiently large for forty men to dine under. The poles which support it are about thirty in number, of pine, and all cut in the Rocky Mountains, having been some hundred years, perhaps, in use. This tent, when erected, is about twenty-five feet high, and has a very pleasing effect.” (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 1, no. 7, 1841; reprint 1973)

Exhibitions

Media - 1985.66.404 - SAAM-1985.66.404_1 - 9039
Picturing the American Buffalo: George Catlin and Modern Native American Artists
October 11, 2019November 22, 2020
Picturing the American Buffalo: George Catlin and Modern Native American Artists examines representations of buffalo and their integration into the lives of Native Americans on the Great Plains in the 1830s and in the twentieth century.