Medicine Man, Performing His Mysteries over a Dying Man
1832
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 73.7 × 60.9 cm
- Status
- In Museum Collection
- Collect24 Art ID
- C24-138787
In 1832, George Catlin witnessed a dramatic ritual at Fort Union, two thousand miles northwest of St. Louis. According to the artist, the medicine man began the healing by administering roots and herbs. If this failed, he would try “shaking his frightful rattles, and singing songs of incantation.” Catlin wrote that the medicine man’s clothing often consisted of “the skins of snakes, and frogs, an…
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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