George Catlin, Chin-cha-pee, Fire Bug That Creeps, Wife of Pigeon's Egg Head
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr. · Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian Open Access (CC0)View original →
George Catlin

Chin-cha-pee, Fire Bug That Creeps, Wife of Pigeon's Egg Head

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
C24-135389

George Catlin painted Chin-cha-pee, wife of the Assiniboine warrior Pigeon’s Egg Head (see 1985.66.179), at Fort Union, in 1832. Catlin described the woman as “fine looking . . . in a handsome dress of the mountain-sheep skin, holding in her hand a stick curiously carved, with which every woman in this country is supplied; for the purpose of digging up the . . . prairie turnip.” (Catlin, Letters …

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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