Wi-jún-jon, Pigeon’s Egg Head (The Light), a Distinguished Young Warrior

George Catlin, Wi-jún-jon, Pigeon's Egg Head (The Light), a Distinguished Young Warrior, 1831, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.179
Copied George Catlin, Wi-jún-jon, Pigeon's Egg Head (The Light), a Distinguished Young Warrior, 1831, oil on canvas, 2924 in. (73.760.9 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.179
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Artwork Details

Title
Wi-jún-jon, Pigeon’s Egg Head (The Light), a Distinguished Young Warrior
Date
1831
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
Keywords
  • Indian — Assiniboin
  • Portrait male — Pigeon’s Egg Head
Object Number
1985.66.179

Artwork Description

George Catlin first met Wi-jún-jon (also called the Light) in St. Louis in December 1831, when the Assiniboine warrior was en route to Washington to meet President Andrew Jackson and tour the city. Catlin recalled that the warrior appeared for his portrait sitting “plumed and tinted . . . [and] dressed in his native costume, which was classic and exceedingly beautiful”---attributes nicely captured in this finished portrait. Wi-jún-jon returned home to the northern Plains eighteen months later a decidedly different man---dressed apparently in a “general’s” uniform and sharing what to his fellow tribesmen were astonishing accounts of the white man’s cities. They eventually rejected his stories as “ingenious fabrication of novelty and wonder,” and his persistence in telling such “lies” eventually led to his murder. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 55, 1841; reprint 1973)