Smithsonian American Art Museum
Bread, Chief of the Tribe
George Catlin, born Wilkes-Barre, PA 1796-died Jersey City, NJ 1872 · 1831
George Catlin probably painted this image of the Oneida chief Bread in Washington, D.C. in 1831. The artist found his subject to be “a shrewd and talented man, well educated---speaking good English---[he] is handsome, and a polite and gentlemanly man in his deportment.” Catlin also described Bread as “half-blood.” The artist apparently devoted some time to painting Bread, as the portrait is one of the most perceptive and carefully finished of the period. (Truettner, The Natural Man Observed, 1979)
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