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
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
Free to use

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
Subjects
  • Figure group
  • Western
  • Architecture Exterior — domestic — teepee
  • Indian — Crow
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)

Works by this artist (22 items)

Robert S. Duncanson, Mountain Pool, 1870, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Dr. Richard Frates, 1983.95.173
Mountain Pool
Date1870
oil on canvas
On view
Robert S. Duncanson, On the St. Annes, East Canada, 1863, 1865, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Drown, 1983.95.170
On the St. Annes, East Canada
Date1863, 1865
oil on canvas
On view
Robert S. Duncanson, Waterfall on Mont-Morency, 1864, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Dr. Norbert Fleisig, 1983.95.161
Waterfall on Mont-Morency
Date1864
oil on canvas
On view
Robert S. Duncanson, Loch Long, 1867, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Donald J. Shein, 1983.95.171
Loch Long
Date1867
oil on canvas
On view

Exhibitions

Media - 1985.66.404 - SAAM-1985.66.404_1 - 9039
Picturing the American Buffalo: George Catlin and Modern Native American Artists
October 11, 2019March 13, 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.

More Artworks from the Collection

William Holbrook Beard, The Runaway Match, 1877, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1977.55
The Runaway Match
Date1877
oil on canvas
Not on view
John Henry Twachtman, Figure in Sunlight (Artist's Wife), ca. 1890-1900, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly, 1929.6.137
Figure in Sunlight (Artist’s Wife)
Dateca. 1890-1900
oil on canvas
On view
Unidentified (Italian), Saint, 19th century, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Laura Dreyfus Barney and Natalie Clifford Barney in memory of their mother, Alice Pike Barney, 1952.13.157
Saint
Artist
Unidentified (Italian)
Date19th century
oil on canvas
Not on view