Kots-o-kó-ro-kó, Hair of the Bull’s Neck, a Chief

George Catlin, Kots-o-kó-ro-kó, Hair of the Bull's Neck, a Chief, 1834, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.49
George Catlin, Kots-o-kó-ro-kó, Hair of the Bull's Neck, a Chief, 1834, oil on canvas, 2924 in. (73.760.9 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.49
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Artwork Details

Title
Kots-o-kó-ro-kó, Hair of the Bull’s Neck, a Chief
Date
1834
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
2924 in. (73.760.9 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Portrait male — Hair of the Bull’s Neck
  • Indian — Comanche
Object Number
1985.66.49

Artwork Description

George Catlin met Hair of the Bull’s Neck, a chief of the Comanche tribe, during his travels west in 1834. The Comanche village, he later wrote, “is composed of six or eight hundred skin-covered lodges, made of poles and buffalo skins, in the manner precisely as those of the Sioux and other Missouri tribes . . . This village with its thousands of wild inmates, with horses and dogs, and wild sports and domestic occupations, presents a most curious scene; and the manners and looks of the people, a rich subject for the brush and the pen.” (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 42, 1841; reprint 1973)

Works by this artist (11 items)

George Catlin, John Sartain, Osceola, engraving and mezzotint, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William Page Howell, 1979.135.2
Osceola
engraving and mezzotint
Not on view
The Magic Lake
Artist
Unidentified
Copy after John Sartain
Date1853
charcoal on paperboard
Not on view
James Hamilton, John Sartain, The Haunted Stream, after 1846, mezzotint on paper mounted on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Library of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1990.5.7
The Haunted Stream
Dateafter 1846
mezzotint on paper mounted on paper
Not on view

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Charles Walter Stetson, Bathers by Moonlight, n.d., charcoal on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1983.65.2
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Charles A. Barry, Portrait of May Scates, 1870, charcoal, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Benjamin T. Howes, 1985.41.1
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Date1870
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