George Catlin, Kots-o-kó-ro-kó, Hair of the Bull's Neck, a Chief, 1834, oil on canvas, 29 x 24 in. (73.7 x 60.9 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
- Artist
- Date
- 1834
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 29 x 24 in. (73.7 x 60.9 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)
