Untitled
Artist
George Stanley
(English, born 1822)
Datecirca 1898
Mediumwatercolor on paper
DimensionsImage: 8 1/4 × 4 3/4 in. (21 × 12.1 cm)
Support: 12 × 9 in. (30.5 × 22.9 cm)
Mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Support: 12 × 9 in. (30.5 × 22.9 cm)
Mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineMuseum acquisition, before 1964
Object number1687.23P
DescriptionA full length portrait of a Native American wrapped in a blanket, standing in front of a large black pot. The figure is wearing a beaded red and blue headband with two feathers in back. The blanket has a geometric pattern of red and green zigzags and red triangles. The figure wears intricately blue beaded moccasins. The black pot has cording wrapped around it.eMuseum Notes
As Americans moved west, artists like George Stanley created documentary and anthropological paintings of the indigenous people that already inhabited the continent. These endeavors were prompted by the idea that as civilization and progress were imposed over the wilderness of the West, the Native inhabitants of this space, seen as incompatible with progress, would eventually be assimilated or become extinct. Objects like blankets and pottery were shown as ethnographic signifiers of the culture being represented.
On View
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