Comanche Village, Women Dressing Robes and Drying Meat

George Catlin, Comanche Village, Women Dressing Robes and Drying Meat, 1834-1835, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.346
George Catlin, Comanche Village, Women Dressing Robes and Drying Meat, 1834-1835, oil on canvas, 2027 14 in. (50.969.3 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.346
Free to use

Artwork Details

Title
Comanche Village, Women Dressing Robes and Drying Meat
Date
1834-1835
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
2027 14 in. (50.969.3 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Indian — Comanche
  • Animal — dog
  • Figure group
  • Occupation — domestic — cooking
  • Architecture Exterior — domestic — teepee
Object Number
1985.66.346

Artwork Description

“The village of the Camanchees,” George Catlin 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 . . . In the view I have made of it, but a small portion of the village is shewn; which is as well as to shew the whole of it, inasmuch as the wigwams, as well as the customs, are the same in every part of it. In the foreground is seen the wigwam of the chief; and in various parts, crotches and poles, on which the women are drying meat, and ‘graining’ buffalo robes.” The artist sketched this image at a Comanche village in 1834. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 42, 1841; reprint 1973)

Works by this artist (2 items)

Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, State Names, 2000, oil, collage and mixed media on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Elizabeth Ann Dugan and museum purchase, 2004.28
State Names
Date2000
oil, collage and mixed media on canvas
Not on view
Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, Untitled, from the portfolio Indian Self-Rule, 1983, color lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Institute of the American West, 1984.78.3, © Jaune Quick-To-See Smith
Untitled, from the portfolio Indian Self-Rule
Date1983
color lithograph on paper
Not 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

Rose Williams, Pot with Incised Decoration, ca. 1992, fired and incised clay with piñon pitch, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson, 1997.124.183
Pot with Incised Decoration
Dateca. 1992
fired and incised clay with piñon pitch
On view
Tom Polacca, Pot with Sgraffito Butterfly Decoration, 1986, fired and sgraffito carved clay, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson, 1997.124.169
Pot with Sgraffito Butterfly Decoration
Date1986
fired and sgraffito carved clay
Not on view
Faye Tso, Head of Emmett, ca. 1985, fired clay with piñon pitch, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson, 1997.124.175
Head of Emmett
Dateca. 1985
fired clay with piñon pitch
Not on view
Jerry Brown, Untitled Face Jug, 1993, earthenware and glaze, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Martha and Pat Connell, 2000.97
Untitled Face Jug
Date1993
earthenware and glaze
Not on view