George Catlin, Hee-láh-dee, Pure Fountain, Wife of The Smoke
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr. · Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian Open Access (CC0)View original →
George Catlin

Hee-láh-dee, Pure Fountain, Wife of The Smoke

1832

Current Collection

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Washington, D.C., United States

Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
73.7 × 60.9 cm
Status
In Museum Collection
Collect24 Art ID
C24-135105

George Catlin described Pure Fountain as a “young and very pretty woman . . . her neck and arms were curiously tattooed, which is a very frequent mode of ornamenting the body amongst this and some other tribes . . . done by pricking into the skin, gunpowder and vermilion.” He painted Pure Fountain at a Ponca village in 1832. (Catlin, Letters and Notes , vol. 1, no. 26, 1841; reprint 1973)

Provenance

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.

Registry history

  • 1832 — Recorded in the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum

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